There are many things Rob Beveridge can claim. He can claim to being an NBL championship coach, leading the Perth Wildcats to the holy grail in 2009-10. The coaching resume of the outgoing coach of the Illawarra Hawks, who announced on Wednesday he would be finishing his time with the region's National Basketball League, can lay claim to many career highlights.Yet maybe his most unusual career highlight is perhaps the most telling.
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Robert Beveridge can unquestionably claim to be the greatest Scottish basketball coach in history.
Scotland isn't something you'd immediately associate with basketball. Football, yes. Rugby, yes. Golf, yes. Drinking, yes. Basketball, nope.
Just weeks out from last year's Commonwealth Games, Scotland pulled off a minor coup of sorts by announcing Beveridge as their national men's basketball coach. Until then many of us had been unaware of Bevo's Scottish heritage despite the dead giveaways of the red hair and the skin which looks like it would burn even under exposure of a flash from an iPhone photo.Seriously, what Beveridge did with the Scottish national team was extraordinary. Beveridge jokes he will never have to buy a drink in Scotland again, but this editor believes if Bevo was to actually test the theory he'd be proven right.
Bevo took the Scottish team, an eclectic mix of ballers, all the way to the bronze medal match where they only narrowly lost against New Zealand. Yet when you think about it, what Beveridge has done in his four years in the Illawarra has borne a resemblance to that feat. He joined the club at a time the Hawks had come through voluntary administration and despite the pressures of being a small budget operation, made the Hawks a genuine contender each year over this tenure.
It proves the quality of leader and basketball coach Rob Beveridge is. Change can be a thing of regeneration. The great man calling time at the Hawks may well prove to be a positive thing for both coach and club. He leaves a remarkable legacy and his time here will no doubt hold him in good stead wherever the future path leads.So, "McBevo", we say thank you and fare the well. Or, as they'd say in Gaelic Bevo … "Slan Leat" my friend.
Julian O'Brien is editor of the Illawarra Mercury