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Sam Mackinnon is going back to being a South East Melbourne Phoenix assistant coach but wants a head coaching role
Sam Mackinnon has had to accept his fate that he only got to coach the South East Melbourne Phoenix for three games this season, but the Australian basketball great wants to see more local coaches receiving opportunities in the NBL.
Mackinnon has coached the Phoenix since the sacking of Mike Kelly after their 0-5 start to NBL25, and he took them to wins against Melbourne United and the New Zealand Breakers.
They couldn't quite complete the treble on Saturday night, losing to the league-leading Illawarra Hawks 88-82 which brought to a close his time in charge.
American Josh King will now take over for the rest of the season with the Phoenix after dramatically getting out of his contract as coach for Turkish club Darussafaka to be part of the NBL for the first time.
Mackinnon, having also briefly been an interim coach at the Brisbane Bullets and having led NZ club Taranaki this off-season, may not have liked the the Phoenix's decision not to back him, but he did his best in the circumstances.
"It's like a referee's call, I got the bad call two days in but I can't change the call so I just have to stay positive with the group and try to get them on the right pathway," Mackinnon said.
"We've only had three training sessions and I've tried to put in what I thought could help the guys get some confidence because we were all a bit flat.
"I did all I could in three games to get us playing the right way and if other clubs see that I've got a bit of a good CV and I'm a potential head coach, who knows? It's out of my control."
What Mackinnon has learned since that taste of coaching at Brisbane, where he was also the club's basketball general manager, is that he wants to be an NBL head coach.
But the Phoenix now join the Adelaide 36ers (Mike Wells), Illawarra (Justin Tatum), New Zealand (Petteri Koponen) and Tasmania JackJumpers (Scott Roth) to be led by international coaches.
That continues the trend that has also seen Dan Shamir, Mody Maor, Chase Buford, Scott Morrison, James Duncan and Mahmoud Abdelfattah take on roles across the league with mixed success in recent seasons.
It's prompted Mackinnon to urge clubs in the future to give locals more of a chance.
"There's a lot of good Australian coaches and New Zealand coaches," Mackinnon said.
"The trend is to get international coaches in and that's fine, but look in your own backyard sometimes.
"We've got lots of experience in the NBL and what not, and if it's me or someone else, don't discount us.
"We're well prepared, we have knowledge of the game and hopefully we can all coach one day."
