Weaver's history earns him right to lead Bullets

Will Weaver has coached one season in the NBL and can consider himself unlucky to not have a championship ring with his resume only continuing to grow since as he now takes over the helm at the Brisbane Bullets.

The Bullets were in a position following NBL26 that they needed to make a big move both in terms of coaching and someone to head up basketball operations – and it just turns out that Weaver has the experience, ability, reputation and nous to now take on both responsibilities.

Folowing the end of the season, the Bullets have confirmed the appointment of Weaver both to be head coach while also taking on the role as President of basketball operations.

To the credit of the Bullets, that's exactly what Darryl McDonald had made clear the club needed to do during his stint through the last 15 games of NBL26 when he was interim coach where he wanted the new coach to be allowed to run the basketball program, and build the roster he wanted.

There's not just any coaching candidate that has the worldwide reputation to be able to take on such responsibility, though. Weaver fits that bill and now steps into the roles at the Bullets as one of the most respected basketball minds across the globe.

There are a lot of ticks in the favour of Weaver as he takes on the job with the Bullets, but the biggest in terms of head coach is the fact that unlike the previous three appointments the club has made, he has previously held that role in the NBL.

Not only that, but when Weaver coached the Sydney Kings back in the 2019/20 season, he was decidedly unlucky to not end up with the championship after a Grand Final Series that ended up compromised thanks to the outbreak of the Covid global pandemic.

Under the guidance of Weaver, the Kings finished as regular season champions with a 20-8 record before beating Melbourne United in the semi finals and that's when things turned different thanks to Covid.

As it turned out, the Kings lost two of the three games that were played with those two defeats coming at Qudos Bank Arena with Games 2 and 3 played without a crowd in attendance with the world beginning to go into lockdown.

It was supposed to be a best-of-five series so it will be forever a great unknown how the rest of the series would have panned out and if Sydney could have won those last two matches for Weaver to become an NBL championship coach.

That ends up being immaterial, but what Weaver did prove in that season at the Kings is how well he adapted to coaching in the league and now that is only going to be a great plus as he steps into the role with the Bullets.

Weaver's coaching career is far from just summed up by that one previous NBL season in Sydney, though.

Prior to the Kings, he had already built a strong reputation and that has only continued in the years since.

Even while still at college himself at the University of Texas, he was part of the coaching staff for the Longhorns from 2006-10. After completing his bachelor's degree in Philosophy and master's in Kinesiology, his coaching career really started taking off despite being in his mid-20s.

Remaining in his home state of Texas, he was assistant coach at Sam Houston State University for two years. That's when the NBA opened their doors to him, starting with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Across three seasons, Weaver moved up the ranks from being a video coordinator to begin with and then being basketball operations assistant, and then a special assistant coach to Brett Brown – no stranger to Australia himself as coach of the Boomers and both the Sydney Kings and North Melbourne Giants.

The next move was for Weaver to remain in the NBA and to join the Brooklyn Nets starting in the 2016/17 season. He spent two seasons there under head coach Kenny Atkinson before then earning his first chance to coach a team in his own right.

That remained under the Brooklyn banner with the G League affiliate the Long Island Nets. He had immediate success too taking them to the G League Finals in 2019 and even though they lost the series, he was named the G League Coach of the Year.

That's what led him to the Kings for the 2019/20 NBL season and following that, he was back to the NBA through the Covid period with two seasons with the Houston Rockets.

It was back to coaching a team outright following that taking on the role at Paris Basketball in the LNB Pro A league of France.

Following a season there, he was back to the NBA firstly returning to the Nets and more recently he has been a coaching advisor with the Charlotte Hornets under head coach Charles Lee.

Not only has Weaver coached in the NBL previously and now also had a long history throughout the NBA and coached his own teams in France and the G League, he has international experience with the Australian Boomers.

He was assistant coach starting back in 2014 and went through until 2018 which included going to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and he was head coach for Asia Cup qualifying matches in 2020.

That's quite the history in basketball around the world that Weaver has amassed over the past 20 years. It's easy to see why he has now been handed the keys in a bid to lead the Bullets back to being a powerhouse of the NBL.

Chris Pike

Weaver's history earns him right to lead Bullets | Brisbane Bullets