Gordon “Gordie” Herbert, who coached Germany to the World Cup gold in basketball, has been a Finnish citizen since 1989, but he still encounters opinions that he should not be selected as Finland’s Coach of the Year at January’s Sports Gala.
– I don’t know about my chances, and I haven’t been nominated before. Many in basketball circles consider the world championship an even harder achievement than Olympic gold, Gordon Herbert says Iltalehte in his place of residence in Hagen, Germany.
– Our semi-final against the United States was an incredible match, and I didn’t really believe in our victory.
All Herbert knows about the Coach of the Year candidates at the Sports Gala is that his good friend Tuomas Iisalo is nominated.
– It’s great that there are two basketball coaches nominated. Tuomas was already a player at Honga when I coached Honka, and here in Germany he has been one of my closest colleagues, says Herbert.
– I have four or five really close coaching colleagues, one of whom is definitely Tuomas, even though we have a completely different philosophy on playing basketball.
In addition, Herbert’s credit colleagues include Henrik Dettmann.
– About my personal friends again Gerry Besselink is definitely important. We are like brothers.
– One person I also keep in touch with a lot is a tennis coach Henrik Johansen, with whom we studied in Jyväskylä at the same time. After the World Championships, we had a small party in Turku with Henrik and my former TuNMKY teammates Pekka Heinonen mixed Jan Kuokan with.
The cottage has two saunas
Gordon Herbert has a cottage in Finland. Jari Welling
Herbert says he heard from his ex-wife From Sari and from his sons, that there has been a discussion in Finland about whether he is Finnish or not.
– That conversation doesn’t bother me, because I know myself who and what I am. I know what Finland means to me. That matter bothers my loved ones more, who know the truth, says Herbert.
– I already know that I am much more Finnish than Canadian. I left Canada in 1977. I only use my Canadian passport in Canada. Otherwise, I travel with a Finnish passport.
The most important things for Herbert in Finland are nature, sea and lakes, and of course also people.
– I think Finland is the best place to live in the world. The quality of life in Finland is excellent. The worst thing about being the head coach of the German national team is that I can’t be in Finland enough during the summer. I believe that when climate change worsens, quite a few others will also discover the wonders of Finnish nature.
Menestysluotsi says that his cabin by the sea in Pyhämaa has two saunas, which he can enjoy better in the winter with a vent.
– My cabin is about 35 kilometers from the center of Uusikaupunki. I have had my cabin there for four years now. The plot is quite large, 1.7 hectares. I enjoy chopping trees. Finnish wood sauna is the best.
Almost perfect Finnish
Herbert has had an apartment in Uusiakaupunki for almost 30 years.
– As a pensioner, I plan to be in Finland. I’m not even getting a real pension from Canada. I am also registered in the files of the International Basketball Federation as a Finn. When I’m in Uusikaupunki, I try to go to Korihai’s games and I still follow their games regularly, he says.
Herbert also speaks Finnish almost perfectly, but he prefers to give interviews in English because it is his original mother tongue.
– I speak English with my sons, but with my ex-wife Sari I also speak a lot of Finnish. When I used to play for Forssa, I went to Finnish language courses in Helsinki five times a week.
– I have always wanted to know Finnish. I graduated from the University of Jyväskylä’s Department of Physical Education in 1992. I studied in Jyväskylä for about four years in addition to playing.
Back to the roots?
Gordon Herbert would still like to coach in Uusikaupunki. Lucas Kroeger
Herbert, who arrived in Hyvinkää Tahko in 1982, is no longer married to his wife Sari, but the friendship that started in 1984 is still deep. Herbert lives alone in Germany.
Herbert has said a few times that he would like to end his coaching career where it started, in Uusikaupunki. Together with his younger son Daniel’s with.
– It would be great to still celebrate the Finnish championship, which I have never won as a coach. With Honga, I won the Finnish Cup. One year in Uusiakaupunki would really still be in the plans before retirement.
– Daniel is a much better coach at the age of 28 than I have ever been. We talk to Daniel, who coaches in Crailsheim, on the phone every day. Daniel has skills I never had. For example, in communication. Daniel’s path is very similar Lassi Tuovin story. Of course, many of us are grateful to Henrik Dettmann, who has done a lot for Finnish basketball.”
Mother’s death was a shock
Although Herbert is one of the hottest coaching names in the world at the moment, considering all sports, he himself has been quite down, as his mother had died just a few days before the interview.
In Germany, Herbert has already been selected as Coach of the Year.
– Of course, it was a great honor that no basketball coach had received before in Germany. Germany is a nation of 90 million people, so the country has a lot of great teams and their coaches.
However, Herbert could not participate in the award ceremony in Baden Baden, because he received the news of his mother’s death on the same weekend just before Christmas.
– My mother’s death from a heart attack was a shock. We assumed he would live at least another five to six years. He was 91 years old and lived in Vancouver. The only good thing was that I was just in October for ten days at his place. My father died five years ago.
Continuation deal before the World Cup
Gordon Herbert is a hot name in the coaching market. Farm Wiedensohler
Herbert spent two to three weeks in Uusiakaupunki and at his cottage in Pyhämaa after the World Championships in August and September. He returned to Germany from Canada and Finland only at the end of October.
The autumn publicity around Herbert in Germany has been very intense, but in connection with one of the lecture gigs, a quiet moment was arranged for a drink with, among other things, a football coach by Thomas Tuchel with.
Herbert signed a two-year contract extension with the German national team just before the World Cup.
– I feel that I am in good shape, and I would like to coach for another couple of years at a high level, such as in the Euroleague or the NBA, after my time in Germany, he says.
– Maybe it’s too difficult to get a head coach position in the NBA, but I’m ready to possibly be an assistant coach, as I was with the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets.
In itself, Herbert enjoys being Germany’s head coach, and the national team still has a lot to offer.
– Our players, for example Dennis Schroeder is fully committed to our plans. He is one of the best players in the world. Franz Wagner is also a future superstar. In the national team, Wagner is the same absolute team player as, for example Lauri Markkanen.
Favorites of the Olympians
Germany is also looking for success at the Olympics. Farm Wiedensohler
At next summer’s Paris Olympics, Germany is one of the favorites as the reigning world champion.
– We haven’t talked much about the Olympics yet. The time for that meeting and meeting is in January. We want to go and enjoy the Olympics. A bit like Spain a few years ago Gasol (Pau and Marc) led by the brothers. This group has been really fun to coach.
Herbert says that coaching the national team is completely different from coaching the club team.
– Creating a personal relationship has been important in this job. At the very beginning, I talked personally with 35–40 players. I have tried to create a personal contact with each of my players. It requires trust and respect from both parties.
“Big basketball boom”
Gordon Herbert does lecture gigs as far as Japan. Lucas Kroeger
Herbert lives in Hagen, Germany, because the German Basketball Association’s office of almost 50 people is specifically in Hagen.
– It was a good decision to move to Hagen. I have been able to integrate into cooperation with the people of the union. I was told that I could live anywhere in Germany. I also have permission from the union to spend a lot of my time in Finland. However, it is easier to handle things face-to-face. It is easy to get to Finland from Düsseldorf airport.
In addition to Finland and Germany, Herbert has coached in Austria, France, Russia and Georgia, among others, and he likes to get to know new cultures and ways of life.
From Hagen, Herbert usually travels by train to Bundesliga and Euroleague games, but the collapse of the local bridge in Hagen during the floods has made travel difficult. It’s only an hour and a half train ride to Bonn for the Bundesliga games, but it’s already over five hours to Daniel Herbert’s place in Crailsheim.
– There are currently only two German head coaches in the German Bundesliga, but three Finnish head coaches. The Bundesliga is currently one of the four best European leagues. And in terms of infrastructure, Germany is already number one in Europe. Because of the World Cup victory, there is a big basketball boom in Germany.
Herbert has done lecture gigs, some of which are in Japan in January and March.
– Lectures give my brain a new challenge. Companies want to hear from me how to handle individuals and make them a cohesive team. The biggest stars are often not the easiest people to deal with.
Herbert has also taken intensive German language courses, but English and Finnish are his languages.
– One of my friends says that life is too short to learn German. Being from Western Canada, I have only studied French in school for one year. I coached in France for three years, when my French improved. I was able to hold, for example, press conferences in French.