Vickerman opens up on United exit

Dean Vickerman says a desire to travel an untrodden path drove his decision to leave Melbourne United and take charge of Japan B League champions Nagasaki Velca.

"There were a number of opportunities that came up that were at a level that needed more investigation, and then the further you got into it, there was an excitement about the opportunity to go and coach in another country again," Vickerman told basketball.com.au.

"This game always has, for me, been about taking the path that you haven't travelled before and doing something different and going to different places.

"Same as the one where we just won a championship with the Tigers and then the Singapore job came up, and I was like 'that's what I want to go do, I want to go and be with the first year of a franchise and see what that's like'.

"Now in the first year of the B.League to go over there and test my abilities over there, I'm looking forward to it."

The three-time NBL championship winning coach takes over from Mody Maor in Japan, giving him a sense of familiarity in his new venture.

“I would like to thank and congratulate Coach Mody, his players, and his staff for bringing Velca its first championship,” Vickerman said.

“My job now is to bring sustained success to this club and challenge for more championships.”

After bringing a championship to United in 2021, Vickerman fell short in back-to-back championship series following that, before failing to make it out of the Play-In Tournament last season.

“To me, I failed these last three years because I didn't bring a championship to the club,” he said.

"So there was a part of like, yeah it's time for someone else to reinvent this and to do it different."