Gaze spreads his gospel to a new audience

From www.theage.com.au
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LINDSAY Gaze is coaching again — not because of ego and not because he was bored. Put simply, he was asked and he said yes.

Gaze, Australian basketball's elder statesman — decorated player, coach and administrator — has a gig that involves more than just running plays and organising practice.

In a cameo appearance back on the sidelines, Gaze is in China helping Melbourne's sister city, Tianjin, win promotion to the first division of China's professional basketball league.

With a translator never far from his side, Gaze is sharing his expertise with the team and trying to give the players a bit more balance than the drive-then-dish-or-shoot style common throughout China.

While some of the problems Gaze has had to contend with have been extremely frustrating — from the saga surrounding the availability of the club's Virgin Islands import to finding his way around the local streets — he is enjoying himself.

And he is having an impact with the Tianjin Rongcheng. He said yesterday: "We still have a chance of finishing second if we beat the top team in our home game tomorrow."

Gaze's latest visit to China sits in sharp contrast to his first visit in 1975. Then, he was a member of the Australian team that was the first sporting group to compete in China "after the separation of the 'Bamboo Curtain' in 1975".

He has been back many times since, but says the rate of change in China is something to behold.

"It's been a very interesting experience for me," Gaze says. "There is absolutely no resemblance to that (the China of 1975) today except in the rural areas and some of the outskirts of the developed cities.

"It's unrecognisable. The development has been phenomenal."

Gaze, who has represented Australia's basketball interests overseas for many years as part of the International Basketball Federation's technical commission, is not the only Australian doing his bit to develop the game in China. Former Opals coach Tom Maher is head coach of the Chinese national women's team.

Gaze believes China is an emerging basketball nation. Its men's team finished eighth at the 2004 Athens Olympics and 12th at the most recent world championships in 2002.

"It's extremely popular here. You see basketball courts everywhere," he says.

Gaze say the only thing Chinese basketball is lacking is enough international competition.

The story on how Gaze landed in Tianjin, China's third-biggest city with 9.5 million people and the biggest port in the north of the country, goes something like this.

Some time last year, Gaze met with officials from Tianjin and, in what he describes as a "throwaway line", said he would be happy to assist with their basketball program — "whatever that might be".

Fast forward to early June when the Melbourne Tigers made their annual trip to China and those officials were there to take Gaze up on his generous offer.

"(They) asked me to come to lunch and they put the hard word on me," he says. "Whether I would be available and prepared to act as a consultant coach for their team in their quest to make first division."

He said he was shocked by the offer, but after a quick check with his wife Margaret, he felt able to take on the job and maintain his commitments to helping the Tigers' development in Melbourne. Gaze stepped down as head coach of the Melbourne Tigers at the end of the 2004-05 season, after being at the helm since the club's inception in 1984, and watched on as new coach Al Westover proceeded to bring the NBL title to Melbourne for the first time since 1997.

But Gaze says the decision to head to China was not fuelled by any desire to coach again. "I never expected to be doing this. I'm very content to help out with the next generation, with the juniors and the rookies and that sort of thing.

"What I'm doing now is not satisfying some sort of coaching ego or anything like that. It's more along the lines of continuing to reinforce what I've believed for a long time — the potential to strengthen … ties between Australia and Asia, and, in particular, China."

The distance from home has forced Gaze's hand on one other matter — technology. Gaze snr talks to son Andrew via the internet and he has brought a laptop computer with him to keep up to date with matters at home.

Gaze estimates his knowledge of Mandarin is limited to 13 words — 10 of them numerals. But he is trying hard to expand his vocabulary beyond just basketball terms. He has learned the players' names and can say "I do want food" or "I don't want food".

The interpreter, too, has contributed to some moments of comic confusion. "I knew I had a pretty serious problem when my interpreter said to me that if we win, the high court might take me to dinner. I thought, 'This is interesting'," Gaze recalls. "Gradually, I figured out he meant the head coach might take me out to dinner."

Some time last year, Gaze met with officials from Tianjin and, in what he describes as a "throwaway line", said he would be happy to assist with their basketball program — "whatever that might be".

Fast forward to early June when the Melbourne Tigers made their annual trip to China and those officials were there to take Gaze up on his generous offer.

"(They) asked me to come to lunch and they put the hard word on me," he says. "Whether I would be available and prepared to act as a consultant coach for their team in their quest to make first division."

He said he was shocked by the offer, but after a quick check with his wife Margaret, he felt able to take on the job and maintain his commitments to helping the Tigers' development in Melbourne. Gaze stepped down as head coach of the Melbourne Tigers at the end of the 2004-05 season, after being at the helm since the club's inception in 1984, and watched on as new coach Al Westover proceeded to bring the NBL title to Melbourne for the first time since 1997.

But Gaze says the decision to head to China was not fuelled by any desire to coach again. "I never expected to be doing this. I'm very content to help out with the next generation, with the juniors and the rookies and that sort of thing.

"What I'm doing now is not satisfying some sort of coaching ego or anything like that. It's more along the lines of continuing to reinforce what I've believed for a long time — the potential to strengthen … ties between Australia and Asia, and, in particular, China."

The distance from home has forced Gaze's hand on one other matter — technology. Gaze snr talks to son Andrew via the internet and he has brought a laptop computer with him to keep up to date with matters at home.

Gaze estimates his knowledge of Mandarin is limited to 13 words — 10 of them numerals. But he is trying hard to expand his vocabulary beyond just basketball terms. He has learned the players' names and can say "I do want food" or "I don't want food".

The interpreter, too, has contributed to some moments of comic confusion. "I knew I had a pretty serious problem when my interpreter said to me that if we win, the high court might take me to dinner. I thought, 'This is interesting'," Gaze recalls. "Gradually, I figured out he meant the head coach might take me out to dinner."