Former Clippers assistant Rex Kalamian brings 25 years of NBA coaching experience to Armenian national basketball, which will host France for two games this week at Cal State Northridge.
When Kalamian took over as head coach last year, Armenia was ranked 93rd of 161 teams. It’s climbed a few rungs since, to 87th. He’s using the same blueprint as has in any of his NBA stops – “That’s all I know,” he insists – including recent posts where his clean-shaven head made him a recognizable figure on the sideline for the Thunder,The same terminology, same practice and shootaround scheduling, same floor-spreading style of play. The same intensity, same certitude.
Kalamian, the son of Armenian-American parents, says he’s motivated by his grandmother’s life story. She survived the Armenian genocide before arriving at Ellis Island: “If I’m having a bad day sometimes, I think about Yevkine Maghakian and I say, ‘You know what? I can’t have a worse day than this woman saw.’ And to me, internally, she provides inspiration. What my grandmother had to endure to be able to have a life here, just to land at Ellis Island? A minor miracle.
Armenian men are, on average, 5-8, though there are three players listed 6-8 or taller on the team that will take the court Friday: Ryan Kiachian, a 6-10 center who plays for Cornell; Davit Khachatryan, a 6-9 center who plays in Armenia and Zach Tavitian, a 6-8 forward who plays in Spain.
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