BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Washington Wizards assistant Adam Caporn will take hemisphere-hopping to a new level after being hired as head coach of the Australian men's basketball team.
Basketball Australia on Thursday said Caporn would continue his coaching duties with the NBA's Wizards and that Dean Vickerman of the National Basketball League's Melbourne United has been appointed to a new role as Boomers associate head coach. Vickerman will take over the head coaching responsibilities if there's a clash with Caporn’s NBA schedule.
The 42-year-old Western Australia-born Caporn was head coach of Basketball Australia’s center of excellence at the Australian Institute of Sport from 2014-21 and has also worked in the U.S. as head coach of the G-League’s Long Island Nets and as an assistant at the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.
Caporn also was formerly a coach at St. Mary's College in California.
Caporn worked under previous Boomers coaches Andrej Lemanis and Brian Goorjian at the last four major tournaments, helping Australia to an Olympic bronze medal in Tokyo in 2021. Australia lost in overtime to Serbia in the quarterfinals at the Paris Games last year and Goorjian left the national team soon after.
“It is an incredible honor to be part of the Boomers program. To step into the role of head coach is truly a dream come true,” Caporn said in a statement. “I want to extend a special thankyou to Andrej Lemanis and Brian Goorjian for bringing me into the Boomers coaching staff — your mentorship and contributions to this program have been truly inspiring."
Australia also has a similar setup with its national women’s coach, Sandy Brondello.
Last month, Basketball Australia said Brondello would continue as coach of the Opals until the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, extending her involvement with the national women’s team to a seventh Olympics.
Brondello, who guided the Opals to an Olympic bronze medal in Paris last year, helped the New York Liberty win the WNBA title in October. Basketball Australia also hired an associate head coach to lead the program while Brondello has WNBA commitments in New York.
Basketball Australia said it conducted an extensive selection process over the last six months before hiring Caporn, consulting with a panel of specialists that included former NBA star and Boomers player Andrew Bogut. On Wednesday, Bogut was appointed as an assistant to Goojian, who now coaches the Sydney Kings in Australia's NBL.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Dennis Passa, The Associated Press
