A Reunion in Paris

Written for nbl.com.au by Tom Hersz

It’s often said that sport is about relationships. For many athletes and coaches, it’s about the bonds that you forge and the friendships you carry even when you no longer share the same locker room.

But when a relationship can bring you back together on the other side of the globe, that’s a true reflection of just how strong those connections can be.

Chris Goulding’s NBL season ended earlier than he’d hoped or expected and he was seeking out an opportunity to play overseas for a few months. It just so happened that his old friend and former Australian Boomers Assistant Coach, Will Weaver, was at the helm of a newer club that could use someone with Goulding’s skillset.

Weaver coached the Sydney Kings to the Grand Final in NBL20, before leaving unexpectedly to take on an opportunity as an assistant with the Houston Rockets. He spent two years working with the Rockets’ young roster before a new and exciting challenge came his way. Weaver was appointed as the Head Coach of the young Paris Basketball club, just the second coach in their short history.

Paris, a club founded by former Minnesota Timberwolves Executive David Kahn in 2018, was entering just their second season in the French LNB Pro A league (the highest level in France) and their first season of EuroCup, and it was Weaver’s task to improve on their 15th place finish the season before and find some success.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">?? ALLO HOUSTON, ICI PARIS VOUS RECEVEZ ? <br><br>Will Weaver s’engage avec Paris Basketball en tant que Headcoach : après ses expériences en NBA aux <a href="https://twitter.com/sixers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sixers</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/BrooklynNets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrooklynNets</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HoustonRockets</a> et en NBL , il prend en main Paris pour sa deuxième saison dans l’élite.<br><br>Welcome Coach ?? <a href="https://t.co/lKG6EIQTNv">pic.twitter.com/lKG6EIQTNv</a></p>&mdash; Paris Basketball (@ParisBasketball) <a href="https://twitter.com/ParisBasketball/status/1550390122864164866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“We were excited to join another ambitious club,” Weaver told NBL Media on Thursday following his team's first EuroCup Playoff win. 

“My career has been, in every stop, working in places that had big aspirations and generally quite a bit of youth, and players that had the potential to get to the highest level and Paris is similar in those ways.

“This is the first time that the club has played two games a week, played any international games and we just won our first playoff game last night in EuroCup, which is the first playoff win in our club’s history. 

“So, how it’s tracking is like anything that you’re trying to do that is big and difficult, you’re eating an elephant one bite at a time.”

Despite being in Europe, Weaver still keeps tabs on the NBL and stays in touch with a lot of the players he’s crossed paths with over the years, especially those Boomers who he worked with while assisting Andrej Lemanis.

Goulding was no exception and the two have stayed in touch, including while Weaver was in Houston and then when he moved to Paris.

“Chris loves hoops and is always checking in on what’s going on with the Rockets or wherever I’ve been,” Weaver said. 

“So he and I would text during the year about how fun it was to live in Paris and his interest in playing an additional season after the NBL year was over. And Daniel [Moldovan] reached out, I guess it was maybe two months ago, saying ‘Hey, just so you know, if there’s an opportunity for Chris to join you? He’d be really excited to do it’.”

Goulding wasn’t sure if anything would come of it, but thought it was worth a shot to see if he and Weaver could re-connect in Paris.

“I’ve kept in pretty constant contact with Will since we first came together with the National Team,” Goulding told NBL Media from Paris on Wednesday. 

“He’s a guy that everyone who plays for him, he builds strong relationships and we kept that through the years. It wavered a little bit when he was with Sydney [chuckles], but not really. 

“When he went to Paris initially, I just thought it was so cool, so I hit him up. I said ‘Congratulations, what a great opportunity’.

“We kept in contact a little bit, I followed the team a little bit and unfortunately when the Melbourne United season ended so early, I was still keen to go play somewhere. I let my manager and my agent know that this would be a cool opportunity.”

Paris had just signed another player, so Goulding and Moldovan (his agent) began looking at other opportunities. As they were about to come to a decision, they reached out once more to Weaver just to check in. A spot popped up at just the right time.

“I always knew that I would have loved to come and play for Will, so for it to happen last minute was pretty cool,” Goulding said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">Chris is here ??<br><br>Chris Goulding a rejoint l’équipe et rencontré ses coéquipiers à Strasbourg en vue du match de samedi ?<br><br>Welcome <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisGoulding43?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChrisGoulding43</a> ? <a href="https://t.co/SM39URev3o">pic.twitter.com/SM39URev3o</a></p>&mdash; Paris Basketball (@ParisBasketball) <a href="https://twitter.com/ParisBasketball/status/1633918803691163651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Weaver knew that Goulding, at this stage of his career, was exactly what his young team needed.

“We’ve had so many injuries that I think we talked about Chris multiple times before we were able to get to a place where it made sense for both of us,” Weaver explained. 

“But we essentially were down to our last spot and the basketball player was interesting, but the person was even more exciting. 

“A veteran, focused only on winning, unselfish to an extreme extent and someone who was excited about the life part of it, to bring his wife and his young daughter to Paris, to enjoy everything that France has to offer off the court too.”

Goulding and his family have been in France for just over a month now and he’s already making an impact. In French LNB Pro A games, the team is 5-2 since his arrival and have won five of their last six games, following a home win on Saturday night. They now sit in ninth place, just half a game outside of the top eight who make the playoffs.

Goulding has started two of those games, is averaging 10.6 points in 21 minutes per game, is hitting over 40 per cent from three-point range and is coming off his best game last week in a win over Limoges, where he had 21 points and three assists in 17 minutes, going five-of-ten from downtown.

It’s not Goulding’s first stint in Europe. He spent the 2014-15 season with Zaragoza in Spain’s ACB and in EuroCup, and he also had a 10-game stint with Torino in Italy’s Lega A in 2016. Those previous experiences have certainly helped him, especially having to integrate himself in the middle of the season with Paris. And he’s finding this experience a lot easier than when he joined Torino, who were just trying to avoid relegation.

“It was a tricky experience for me basketball wise,” Goulding said of his time in Italy. 

“I struggled to fit in and help. Granted I was seven years younger than I am now, so probably a little more immature and don’t really know what I know now about basketball.

“This time around it’s been really good that I’ve been able to reunite with Will. Often if you head somewhere mid-season, especially in a new league, half the struggle is does the coach think you can play because sometimes it’s not the coach’s decision to bring you in, can you win the trust of your teammates and do they think you can contribute and help. 

“For me, it was about bringing my experience and trying to help lift the culture a little bit amongst the group. There’s a lot of young guys that are really talented and are going to have amazing careers wherever they end up, and oftentimes it’s difficult to think about the collective, the group. 

“So come in, do whatever is necessary to get some wins on the board and if that’s making shots and playing 30 minutes, well awesome. If it’s playing ten minutes and bringing good energy and doing whatever I can do in that role, well that’s cool as well. And I think that’s something that as I’ve gotten a little bit older, I’m happy to embrace that. I’ve done that with the National Team as well.

“The big bonus for me was having Will. Having a guy that trusts you, he knows what I can do, I know how he is as a coach, so there was no feeling out period in regards to a new coach. It was more just get locked in on the system, what do you expect and let’s try and get to work. So, it’s been so much easier this time around with Will.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">Shooters shoot ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisGoulding43?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChrisGoulding43</a> <br><br>?? 5 trois points inscrits<br>? 21 points <br>? 19 d’évaluation <br><br>Chris Goulding on FIRE à Bercy ? <a href="https://t.co/kkgB2kYL8O">pic.twitter.com/kkgB2kYL8O</a></p>&mdash; Paris Basketball (@ParisBasketball) <a href="https://twitter.com/ParisBasketball/status/1645404273767849984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

For Weaver, he’s loved having Goulding join the group and is absolutely leaning on him, as a proven winner. 

“The most fun part about coaching for me is getting to be on the journey with players for however long you’re together and know that down the line you’re gonna get to have that shared experience, knowing that they’re going to improve and grow and change and so are you,” Weaver said. 

“So, that’s really been the most fun about teaming back up with Chris is, all the things I knew he could bring to the table, have been added to over the intervening years. It hasn’t been hard to integrate him at all. 

“He has integrated himself first as a teammate, proactively connecting and supporting and asking great questions of his teammates, and then his skillset obviously speaks for itself. He’s been a tremendously successful player for a decade now.

“So, I get know no credit for making him look good and I’m very grateful for all the ways that he’s made our systems look good.”

Humble as always is Mr. Weaver. But there’s something to be said about Goulding’s experience and maturity as a leader. He’s shown that with Melbourne United over the last five years especially, captaining the team to two Championships. He’s been a veteran presence with the Boomers too, as one of only 12 Australian men with an Olympic Basketball Medal.

So, it’s no surprise that his new teammates have embraced him since he joined them last month. And when I asked Weaver about whether they’ve responded well to Goulding, he basically just laughed.

“He’s an Aussie, Tom, hell yeah they have,” Weaver quipped. 

“He is all the kinds of seasoned and tough-minded and physically resilient that you have to be to be able to play winning basketball as consistently as he has. And, the youth of our team – it’s sometimes easy to lose track of it when you’re in it day to day – but we have the youngest team in France and probably EuroCup, by a large margin.

“So, although he was deferential at first, it didn’t take long for his teammates to recognise they had things to learn from him and that he could help them on the court by utilising his obvious skills.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">Chris Goulding après sa première avec <a href="https://twitter.com/ParisBasketball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ParisBasketball</a> à la Halle Carpentier ???? <a href="https://t.co/SVqNOgVzZt">pic.twitter.com/SVqNOgVzZt</a></p>&mdash; Paris Basketball On Air (@ParisB_OnAir) <a href="https://twitter.com/ParisB_OnAir/status/1637410993503387649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

On the court, Goulding has quickly adapted to the differences between LNB Pro A and the NBL. He’s noticed some similarities in terms of where the NBL was a few years ago with the focus on offensive-minded import point guards. But the French league is a lot more athletic than the NBL.

Goulding spoke of the strong African influence in France, which he thinks will continue to grow in Australia with the development of South Sudanese and other African players.

Goulding has noticed though that the pace seems to be a bit slower than the NBL. Most teams are more comfortable in the half-court.

“The way that we play at Paris is a little different,” he explained. 

“There’s a lot of teams that if they get an opportunity to fast break, of course they’ll take it, otherwise they’re walking the ball up and they’re in a half-court set. Whereas we’re Will Weaver style, you know, we’re trying to push the ball at all times, get really good shots at the rim or open threes, so we’re a little bit different.”

Weaver’s style in Paris is in some ways similar to what he ran with the Sydney Kings in NBL20. That read and react, free-flowing and fast-paced offensive style really laid some of the foundations for the club's success these past two years. 

Weaver was at the helm as Paul Smith and his ownership group, along with CEO Chris Pongrass, were beginning to put their stamp on the program, He had a hand in bringing in some of the players and coaching staff that have gone on to become back-to-back champions and has certainly enjoyed watching them evolve to be the league’s standard setters.

“The things I’m proudest of are the people that I spent time with and helped bring together in all the places I’ve been” Weaver added. 

“And so, in Sydney, Luc (Longley) and Bogues (Andrew Bogut) and (Daniel) Kickert and (Kevin) Lisch and (Angus) Glover and Xavier (Cooks) and DJ (Vasiljevic) – all these guys that I had a hand in recruiting and getting to spend time with in that first season, obviously have propelled that thing forward and added some other good members. 

“Chase, first and foremost, to be able to take the foundation that we put in place and capitalise on the patience and the high standards that were set by ownership right from the start.”

Weaver is now trying to guide his new club to develop the same high standards that will lead to consistent, sustainable winning, and ultimately success.

While Goulding missed the cut-off to be eligible to play in EuroCup games, he has been extended until the end of the French season and will help Weaver to move Paris Basketball in the right direction. And that has the coach feeling good about his team’s prospects for the remainder of this season.

“I’m very confident, but confidence is born out of the approach that we took from day one in terms of not skipping steps,” Weaver said. 

“Everyone in our locker room has been confident from the beginning that, with a healthy roster, or healthy-ish roster, that we were going to be competitive and be playing our best basketball at this time of year and that’s been borne out. 

“But it’s of course, hugely due to the additions that we’ve made – Chris being the most recent one – and the commitment for all of our guys to stay with their rookie American coach playing this different style in these competitions that they’re always younger than their opponent, they’re always asked to accept a new teammate that we’ve had to add in because of injuries. 

“We’ve used every single spot allowed to be used this season because of the length of the injuries that we’ve suffered, but it just makes the success that we’re having now all the more gratifying.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">? Welcome <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisGoulding43?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChrisGoulding43</a> ??<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BetclicELITE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BetclicELITE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ParisBasketball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ParisBasketball</a> <a href="https://t.co/yQPPumAN19">pic.twitter.com/yQPPumAN19</a></p>&mdash; LNB (@LNBofficiel) <a href="https://twitter.com/LNBofficiel/status/1634636196025626625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

And for Goulding, he’s hoping this experience will assist in helping Melbourne United turn things around in NBL24. It’s also some nice recognition for him at this stage of his career, that his game is appreciated beyond Australian shores. Plus, just a great life experience with his family.

“I’ve had little stints in Europe before and I seriously considered going back right when COVID hit, so it’s always something that’s just been ticking away in the back of my mind,” he sad. 

“And I thought this was a really good opportunity. You know, I’m a lot older now, I consider myself a lot more mature as a basketballer, so how would I be able to come and fit in in another different league that I hadn’t experienced ... just to come and test myself in a different environment. 

“The plus side of that is it’s Paris, one of the most famous cities in the world. I have my family here with me. What an opportunity for them and especially the age that my daughter’s at to come and spend a few months in Europe. So that personally is going to be awesome for me and my family, which will lend itself to being a better basketballer.

“I like to compete, I’m a competitor [and it was] a really disappointing year with Melbourne United on the team front, missing the playoffs. And you come over here to a not dissimilar situation where we’re behind the eight ball a little bit in the French league - an opportunity to try and get on a run a little bit like we did with Melbourne and push towards a playoff spot - and ultimately, get back to a position where you’re winning important games of basketball. 

“At this stage of my career that’s why I play. You play to win, so all those things combined it’s been enjoyable so far. Hopefully it will be enjoyable for the next couple of months.”