Editorial
You can hear the enthusiasm in Brian Goorjian's voice when he speaks of it. It's genuine.
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When the new coach of the region's National Basketball League franchise talks about his previous trips to Wollongong with opposition teams, he speaks warmly of the "advice" he used to receive from local fans all almost within arms reach. You can tell he loved it, thrived off it.
And you can tell he's looking forward to being on the other side when the new NBL season eventually kicks off most likely in January.
Goorjian has now been one of our newest residents for a couple of weeks, moving to the city to take up the head coaching position of the franchise now run in part by his close friend, new Hawks president and co-owner Dorry Kordahi.
It has been a rough initiation for the franchise, having to battle the fallout of the league removing the name of the region "Illawarra" from the club's name.
It wasn't a bed of their making, but they've had to lie in it. But they've also been listening too.
During the week, the Mercury took Goorjian and Kordahi into the BlueScope steelworks for a look at the industry which has helped shape this region and its people.
While it's true the Illawarra economy is as broad and diverse as it has ever been, even in these COVID-riddled times, so much of what this region has was founded on the back of the steel industry.
When Goorjian speaks of the steely edge of the fans at the Snakepit and the WEC, he now has a sense of the spirit of where it came from.
And Goorjian is a basketball coach who has made his name on playing a tough, physical brand of basketball. A brand of basketball the people of the Illawarra will welcome. Blue-collar basketball.
Under a Goorjian-coach Hawks opposition teams will know they will in for a rough ride, on court as well as off. It will be a furnace. Welcome to Steel City basketball.
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