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.
Build your own ultimate team! Pick your key players and take a shot at big cash prizes every day with Draftstars. For great odds on NBA games every day head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
The pressure is building on defending NBL champions Sydney, but coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah isn't feeling it, even after a loss to the bottom-placed Adelaide…
This is looking like a different Hawks team since Justin Tatum replaced Jacob Jackomas, winning four from six.
The Sydney Kings have successfully defended their NBL crown.
News from on and off court around the NBL.
The NBL has delivered a slap on the wrists to the Kings coach and a proverbial slap in the face to all referees.
Sydney have lowered Melbourne's colours on Christmas Day.
