Taipans Coach Back For Two More

Saturday, March 4, 2023

The Cairns Taipans have announced Adam Forde has re-signed as coach for the next two seasons.

The NBL23 Coach of the Year led the Taipans on an incredible run to the Playoffs Series this season, just a year after finishing ninth on the league standings.

Forde edged out New Zealand's Mody Maor and Sydney's Chase Buford for the Lindsay Gaze Trophy.

“He’s a great Australian coaching story, Adam Forde,” NBL analyst Liam Santamaria said last month.

“The players that play under Adam Forde love him.

“He was my pick for Coach of the Year and it was cool to see him get it.”

Cairns announced the news via their social media accounts on Friday night.

“He starts from the very bottom and then he gets an opportunity at the Wildcats as a volunteer assistant coach and works his way up the ladder and gets an opportunity in Sydney. It didn’t work for him in the glitz and glamour of the harbour city necessarily, they moved in a different direction,” Santamaria added.

“But then he landed in a perfect spot in Cairns, he’s a punch above his weight kind of character and that’s what that small market team is. They’ve been terrific.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">HE. IS. BACK. ?<br><br>Adam Forde returns as the Head Coach for TWO MORE YEARS!! ? <a href="https://t.co/Os0oTobFop">pic.twitter.com/Os0oTobFop</a></p>— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans/status/1631590979160666113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>