Basketball: Top Aussie coach joins NZ

1.00pm

Basketball New Zealand have recruited another of Australia's finest coaching brains -- West Sydney Razorbacks' Gordie McLeod -- to be manager of coach and player development.

McLeod resigned as head coach of the Razorbacks last week after guiding them to Australian NBL finals in 2002 and again this year.

West Sydney were the only team in the 2003-04 league with no American imports and took the Sydney Kings to a deciding game five in the final series after finishing runners-up to the same team in the regular season with a 25-8 record.

A distinguished CV includes head coach at the Australian Institute of Sport 1993-97 and head coach of the Australian Under-23 men at the 1993 world championships.

He coached the Australian team that finished runners-up at the 1995 world junior championships and was assistant coach on the Australian Boomers team defeated by the Tall Blacks in the 2001 Oceania championships.

As a player, McLeod represented Australia at the 1978 world championships and 1980 Moscow Olympics, and played 259 NBL games.

As manager of coach and player development, he will be responsible for implementing a national education programme to improve the skills of both players and coaches through schools, coaching courses and workshops.

McLeod isn't the first leading Australian to cross the Tasman.

Former Opals women's assistant coach Carrie Graf guided the Tall Ferns through the Oceania championship series last year and was replaced by mentor Tom Maher last month after securing a WNBA head coaching job in Phoenix.

- NZPA