'I said no': Why McDonald feared history repeating

Darryl McDonald wasn’t sure about becoming Brisbane Bullets interim coach at first, but now wants to continue in the role and clearly the players agree after how they played on Monday with strong backing from an NBA champion.

Having had two previous stints as an interim coach firstly at the Melbourne Tigers back in NBL11 and then with United in NBL15, McDonald was gun shy when approached to replace Stu Lash at least temporarily with the Bullets.

He then might have regretted agreeing to it with Saturday's 29-point loss to the South East Melbourne Phoenix, but you could instantly see his impact on the players in Monday's drought breaking win against the New Zealand Breakers.

What stood out above everything else was the freedom the players were playing with, the focus on sticking to a simplified offensive structure, and then the way they were responding to McDonald.

Given the standing he has in the game going back to his 486-game, three-time championship winning career and now having coached in the league for 15 years, that's obvious but it has now sparked his interest in keeping this job beyond an interim basis.

"When I first heard about it and Mal (Watts, chief executive) came to me, I was pretty much like I don't want to do this because I've been in this position before, and I've done it twice with nothing at the end of it," McDonald said.

"He pretty much told me he wanted me to do it and not to worry about that, and then when I got around the group the first day the welcoming from them and being around these guys, I was understanding that I think we've got something special here.

"Yeah, why not, let's get through it and it's hard when I know they're reaching out to get another coach even though I understand it given we've lost a fair bit with fans, members and sponsors.

"They need a big name to kinda get all that back and I understand that, but right now it's me that's coaching the next game and I'll just coach every game until my time is up.

"I never thought I'd get another opportunity and I'll be honest, wasn’t really looking for it, but now that I'm in, I wanna stay and keep giving it a chance to see what happens."

Alex Ducas is fully aware of what McDonald did as a player and even saw some of the tail end his career when he was growing up in Geraldton so he has that natural respect for him.

He has enjoyed having him as an assistant so far this season with the Bullets as he's returned from winning NBA championship at the Oklahoma City Thunder.

After his NBL best 18 points and four triples, he's not hiding how much he wants McDonald to remain to coach.

"Long answer short, yeah, we want him around," Ducas said.

"I'm 100 per cent locked in with DMac for the rest of the season, he's good with me and the group loves him, and I know as a playing group we were super excited when we found out he was going to take over the job.

"You see the respect and response that he gets from the players in tonight's game, and everyone respects him as a player, but also as a coach and the perspective he puts on the game and how he approaches it.

"We're stoked to have him around and hopefully this is not the end of it, let's keep him around."