PERTH, Australia -- Former Lakehead Thunderwolves coach Scott Morrison is off to the land of kangaroos, koalas and championship basketball.
The P.E.I. native has signed a three-year deal to coach the Perth Wildcats, 10-time champions in the National Basketball League. He spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach under Brad Stevens with the Boston Celtics. Stevens resigned his coaching duties earlier this year to take on the role of president of basketball operations.
Morrison, who coached Lakehead from 2003 until 2013, bringing the team to four straight Final 8 appearances - including a silver-medal finish in his final season before leaving to coach the G-League's Maine Red Claws -- said he can't wait to head Down Under.
"Outside of the NBA, the Perth Wildcats head coach position was one of the best available in the world. Perth is a great city in an English-speaking country, making it an easy transition for my family. Any time you get a great career opportunity and a great opportunity for your family, you have to go for it," Morrison said in a release issued early Tuesday by the team.
"I'm excited for the challenge. I'm excited to get back to being a head coach after a few years of being an assistant, and I'm very honoured to be joining Perth's great history of winning."
Morrison interviewed for head coaching vacancies in both Boston and Washington, but ultimately didn't land either job, leaving him looking for new work.
Perth seemed like the perfect opportunity, he said.
"There's an expectation that this organization to do well and to live up to the past, but that's not something I'm afraid of. I've always been the kind of person and competitor that embraces the pressures. It just makes achieving your goals that much sweeter," Morrison said.
"I know that the Wildcats 10 championships is a record for the league, which makes it easy for us to determined what the goal is and that's No. 1. To be successful as a coach you need to be part of a great team, and there's a great staff and a great group pf players already in place that I'm excited to get to know and learn from."
Morrison replaces Trevor Gleeson, who won NBL titles five times between 2013-14 and 2019-20, falling in the final in 2020-21 after a 25-11 finish. Gleeson left for an assistant coaching job with the NBA's Toronto Raptors.
The veteran coach shares the same name as the Australian prime minister and said over the years it's led to some interesting exchanges on social media, where Canada's Scott Morrison has been known to stir the pot a time or two himself.
"Over the years it's been funny to get a lot of people hitting me up on Twitter, cursing at me, complaining at me," he said.
"If the shoe was on the other foot and my favourite Canadian team hired Justin Trudeau to coach the team I think I'd get a great kick out of that, so I don't blame anybody for laughing."
