Germany coach Gordie Herbert during the championship game of the Basketball World Cup against Serbia in Manila, Philippines, on Sept. 10.Aaron Favila/The Associated Press
It started with a vision for Gordie Herbert, one he projected without any fear of failure.
The Penticton, B.C., native was hired to be Germany’s senior men’s basketball head coach back in September, 2021, with the team not having enjoyed much success over the years.
“My press conference, I gave a vision and I think any time when you take over, you need to get a vision of where you want to go,” he said. “The vision I gave was a three-year program and we’re going to medal all three years. We’re going to get to the podium three years in a row.
“And the second one was we need a commitment from players for three years. With the national team, we have a very short preparation before we play. It’s not even three weeks and we need continuity year after year with a core group and I ask guys for a three-year commitment.
“I think almost nine months before we were going to play at EuroBasket [in 2022] and really, I wasn’t talking to the public – I was talking to our players through the press.”
Under Herbert’s tutelage, Germany took bronze at EuroBasket, its first time medaling at the event since 2005, and won its first-ever gold at the FIBA World Cup in September, going 8-0. Germany also went from 11th in the FIBA rankings before the World Cup to third.
Herbert, who competed for Canada at the 1984 Olympics and 1986 World Cup as a player, pointed to some key factors that led to the World Cup victory.
“I think when we lost the United States and Abu Dhabi and in the practice game. I think right then we felt, you know, we could do something,” he said.
“Our first defining moment was everybody showed up in great shape for camp. We had a four or five day training camp, that was it. And then another defining moment, Franz [Wagner] got hurt the first game and was out for five games, I think, and everybody else picked it up.
“A lot of people were surprised we won. As the tournament went on, we expected to win.”
With the success, some honours followed for the 64-year-old. He was one of two winners of the Coach of the Year award from the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) on Dec. 17, while the national team earned Team of the Year for the first time.
He had also been honoured with the White Rose of Finland earlier in the month. Herbert is a dual citizen of Canada and Finland, where he spent a number of years coaching and playing.
“It’s quite surreal to be honest, because Germany is such a great sport country with so many different sports and coaches,” Herbert said. “And football’s so big here, handball’s big, volleyball. So it was a big honour.
“Not for myself, but even more so for the team. And when you look at, you know, basketball is probably the No. 2 sport in the world and the only thing bigger than the World Cup gold medals, is probably the World Cup gold medal for football.
“A lot of countries look at the World Cup [as being] even bigger than the Olympics.”
Along the way, Herbert has found ways to reinvent himself with the help of other coaches and experiences
“Coaching Canada in the windows and then working with [former Canada head coach] Nick Nurse helped a lot,” he said. “Understanding, seeing his philosophy, which is kind of different than what I’ve seen in Europe.
“I think that really helped me coming into this job [with Germany]. I took some of the stuff Nick did and I took the stuff I was doing in Europe and I kind of recreated myself so to speak. The game’s changing, the landscape’s changing. We have to recreate ourselves all the time.”
“I was in Frankfurt for about six to seven years in a row and I think I became stagnant,” Herbert added. “Same coaching staff and just same situation. and so I think joining Canada and joining the Brooklyn Nets [in 2019-2020] really kind of gave me an opportunity to recreate myself.”