The Sydney Kings have received around 20 applicants for their NBL head coaching position, with high profile candidates from America, Australia and Asia among the hopefuls.
Applications for an interim coach for the remainder of this season and the full 2012-13 campaign closed on Tuesday, with the club looking to compile a shortlist and conduct interviews later in the week.
The position became vacant last week, when incumbent coach Ian Robilliard stood down and took over as interim chief executive following the departure of executive officer Stephen Dunn.
Robilliard’s assistant Tim Hudson coached the team in last week’s loss at Perth.
“The level of interest mirrors the importance of the position, there’s been a lot of interest,” Robilliard told AAP.
“A lot of high profile applications from America to Asia to Australia.”
Robilliard said he couldn’t divulge the identity of any of the candidates but confirmed there were former NBL coaches amongst the applicants.
He said he wanted to bring in a couple of external consultants to help construct a shortlist of around five and hoped to conduct interviews on Thursday or Friday.
Robilliard said there was a chance the club could make an appointment before their next game on Sunday at home to Townsville.
“If we can get someone by the weekend great, but if not I think people understand it’s such an important position and we want to get it right,” Robilliard said.
“If we need to take an extra day or two or three days we will.”
Sydney captain and centre Julian Khazzouh was non-committal about whether the appointment would influence his decision on whether to stay with the Kings.
“I’ve spoken with the club a fair bit and I think their first priority at the moment is to find a coach for next year and that’s totally understandable and we’ll wait and see what happens,” Khazzouh told AAP.
“I can’t wait to play this weekend and I’m looking forward to finishing off the season with the guys and if we don’t play together again it’s going to be a shame, but I really enjoy playing with this bunch of guys.”
He said last week had been one of the most emotional of his basketball career, but was confident the off-court changes would not be a distraction going into Sunday’s game.
“I think it’s something that we’ve put behind us and hopefully moving onto Townsville, we can feed off the energy and try and get that win,” Khazzouh said.
K Baller
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So does that mean that the Big K is moving on. Cant say he has been at his best this year anyway! Whats the bet that the Kings are still trying to make a decision in 6 weeks time. What's the rush - they will save themselves some money, and the season is already gone. Better luck next year. Hopefully there are some big shake ups for 2012/13 cause if there arent its not looking promising - unfortunately