'Built Forde tough': Adam driving 3x3 team to LA28

• Revealed: All 165 games of the 2025-26 NBL season
• Revealed: All 92 games of the 2025-26 WNBL season‍
• Hoops heaven: 165 NBL games games in 155 days

Adam Forde's unexpected opportunity to coach the Australian Gangurrus reinvigorated him enough to return to the Cairns Taipans for NBL26.

Forde, 43, now has his sights set on getting the national 3x3 men's team to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

"It almost re-energised me with basketball because after 14 years in the NBL, I feel pretty confident in players and scouts and how the game is played, and the trends the NBL is following, but 3x3 was something that made me relearn the game," Forde said.

"That was kind of cool and I wasn’t expecting me to be as enthusiastic as I was for it and now in the span of four months I've been to three countries I've never visited before and that will be no different with a few of the 3x3 events planned for next year.

"Everyone has an ambition at some point of trying to get to the Olympics and in our case it might be through that 3x3 pathway."

By the end of the 2024-25 NBL season, Forde said it was right to explore other opportunities. He'd been been a long-time assistant coach with the Perth Wildcats and Sydney Kings, and head coach at both the Kings and Taipans since 2013.

What he wasn’t expecting was a chance to coach the Australian 3x3 team. Forde has now been part of three tournaments as coach including World Cup in Mongolia.

It came up at the same time when Forde was searching for his next challenge and as part of that process he realised it was at the Taipans and Cairns was the best place for he and his young family.

Getting back home to Cairns

Forde has just this week returned home to Cairns to his wife and five-year-old son, and to the Taipans, after exactly 30 days away. That was firstly for the 3x3 World Cup in Mongolia and then 10 days in Utah with the Jazz and for the Salt Lake City Summer League.

It was the end of a hectic off-season after NBL25.

"I think this is the longest stretch most recently too that I've been away from home," Forde revealed.

"What helps obviously is that my family is super supportive in what I do which is the most important thing, and this whole off-season has been quite exciting and different in so many ways.

"I went from reviewing last season and wanting to move forward in a different direction career-wise to explore some other things, but to circle back and find that Cairns is the best solution for me in my career.

"It's also because of what it provides for my family so the last 30 days are just a snapshot of what the whole period be like and it's good to finally be back in Cairns getting prepared for another season."

How Gangurrus chance came about

Being part of the 3x3 game wasn’t something that Forde had necessarily ever thought about, but when he spoke with Basketball Australia's executive general manager high performance Jason Smith, they quickly figured it could be a good fit for all involved.

And so far so good for Forde with some opportunities to be part of the national team at a Champions Cup, Asia Cup and World Cup, and visit some countries he'd never previously been to with Singapore, Thailand and Mongolia.

"It's funny what opportunities basketball can provide and it was off a conversation unrelated to 3x3 that I had with Jason Smith," Forde said.

"From there, it was brought up that there was a vacancy for the 3x3 head coach and we had to make a quick decision on it because the Champions Cup in Bangkok, Thailand, was two weeks away.

"I had never been to Bangkok before either and I thought it sounded like it could be fun and exciting. Also because the off-season I was in between job interviews and moving and packing up the house, for me it was a good mental break to switch off and do something fun."

First step finding 3x3 players

Given it was a short turnaround from when Forde was appointed coach of the Gangurrus to their first tournament which was the Champions Cup in Thailand, he thought going for players familiar to him that would work best.

He settled on Alex Higgins-Titsha, Jonah Antonio, Dillon Stith and Josh Davey who have all played for him at different times with the Taipans. He wanted Greg Hire on board too who he had coached at the Wildcats and who enjoyed great 3x3 success following his NBL career.

"Then I had to pick a team and the guys that I knew chemistry-wise that would suit well for 3x3 were Jonah, Alex, Dillon and Davey who I had all coached before in Taipans," Forde said.

"So we went to Bangkok and we got bronze and this was against all the best countries in the world in this one tournament. We were learning as we go and it automatically gave me the bug for it because it was fun, and on top of that we beat USA twice which the Australian team had never done on 3x3.

"But I feel like moment where it all sunk in that it was something we could actually do was when we lost to France in the first game, and in our review Greg Hire, who is almost like a pioneer for 3x3, says that was the team that won the silver medal at the Olympics."

Unexpected chance for Olympics

What has really lit a fire under Forde when it comes to the 3x3 game is the opportunity it provides to be shooting for a spot at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles for 2028.

While it would be something special for himself, he is even more excited about it because of the prospect of offering an opportunity for a group of players to play for Australia at the Olympics that might never realistically be possible with the Boomers.

"Then there was that real moment of thinking this could get us to the Olympics," Forde said.

"You look at that Boomers team and it's filled with NBA players, there are guys throughout the NBL who have a dream of representing Australia at the Olympics but their position might be dominated by guys in the NBA.

"So there's a part where 3x3 creates another avenue where you can still don the green-and-gold at the Olympics just in 3x3.

"For me that was also my moment where if you told me six months ago that I would be trying to prepare a team to go to the 2028 Olympics, I would have sat there and said in what? Archery. But 3x3 provides that."

Learning on the go

It has been a steep learning curve the past few months for Forde to understand what the 3x3 game is all about and what works, and what doesn’t, and the same can be said for the players he's had playing for him for the most part.

But the more he has thrown himself into being part of it and the more he thinks about the plan for the next couple of years to try and qualify for LA28, and the more excited he has become about it.

"From there we went to the Asia Cup and brought in Lachy Barker for Josh Davey, and we won gold there and now we've just done the World Cup in Mongolia," Forde said.

"We did well in the pool stage but then got absolutely smoked by Spain in the first round of crossovers and they ended up winning it.

"But again this is all part of the learning curve where we look at the No. 1 nation in Serbia and we beat them, so we're still learning this game and need to play it more, but next year we have the Commonwealth and another World Cup which will help us.

"Then we'll have the Olympic qualifiers where we'll try and get in the LA28 Olympics. A large of what we're trying to do is build our depth chart in that 3x3 format and there's already guys I bookmark around the NBL who would be a perfect candidate."

Thankful to former Wildcats coach

Immediately after the 3x3 World Cup in Mongolia and Forde headed straight to Utah on the invitation of current Jazz assistant coach, and former Wildcats NBL head coach, Scott Morrison.

While there were games to be played over three days for the Salt Lake City Summer League, it was about much more than that which had Forde excited to spend time in Utah.

"I'm forever grateful for Scott Morrison. I know Scott was one year in the NBL and we were probably unaware of the level of knowledge that he has in basketball," Forde said.

"People who know basketball and know Scott will know that he hangs his hat on shot selection and his ability to breakdown purposeful cuts.

"He pretty much wrote the playbook on cutting and he's also a very defensive minded coach so it was cool how much I've been able to connect with him since his time in Perth.

"There's been things I've picked his brain about especially about shot selection and the cutting component, and I pestered him enough where he finally allowed me to come and hang out in Utah."

Learning from the best in the world

Looking back on the 10 days that Forde spent in Utah and there was so much to enjoy about it, but ultimately what was most important was the things that he picked up and learned that he can take back to Cairns for NBL26.

"I ended up being there for about 10 days and we did the mini-camp where you get to see firsthand the draft workouts and how they go about some of the practices and the day to day," Forde said.

"There are things we can take from that which we'd like to start doing here. Then there were the three game at the Salt Lake City Summer League games, which was great, and getting to see guys like Will Magnay and Alex Ducas there was really cool.

"They're the best at the world for a reason so when you get an opportunity to hang out with them for 10 day and meet some incredible people, you never pass it up.

"I got to hang out with their video room guys and see how they do it, and they allowed me to do the scout for one of the games.

"Just to see it from a different lens and learn things that you can take back and benefit us, that opportunity is something I definitely I owe Scott for. He was a legend for allowing me to do that."

Calling Cairns home now

Now that Forde is back home in Cairns and preparing for a fifth season coaching the Taipans, and while he and his wife spent most of their lives in Perth and then had a couple of years in Sydney, Far North Queensland is now home for them.

"We've got a son who's five and this is our fifth year in Cairns, so he was one and-a-half when he moved up here and he's started school here," Forde said.

"He follows rugby now and he's a Queenslander, and that's all he knows at the moment.

"Both me and my wife are from Perth growing up in an AFL state, but now it's a rugby house so it does feel like it's home.

"It's a good spot of Australia to live as well that's for sure."