Hoops Capital -- owners of the Sydney Kings and Sydney Flames -- went global in their search for a new General Manager of Basketball, casting the net far beyond Australia's shores for the right architect to guide the organisation's next chapter.
And in New Yorker James Newman, they landed someone for whom this terrain isn't entirely foreign.
Newman was announced on Monday as the person who'll guide the next chapter of professional basketball in Sydney, coming off a stint as General Manager of Paris Basketball, where he helped build a franchise from the ground up that's culminated in a remarkable run of silverware: the 2024 EuroCup championship that catapulted the club into the EuroLeague competition, the 2025 French Cup title, and a dominant 2024-25 French League crown.
Newman will formally begin his new role in early January, working alongside Luc Longley -- an Australian basketball luminary, part-owner, and Head of Basketball for Hoops Capital -- as well as the organisation's new CEO Mark Thompson.
"There's probably a checklist of 15 things it managed to check," Newman told ESPN, on why the role appealed to him. "It's a combination of all of them that made it work but, the first thing, for sure, was the people. That's something I felt strongly about."
The 33-year-old was one of a plethora of qualified candidates -- coming from across the basketball spectrum -- who went through the multi-stage interview process, with his experience and demonstrated success in decision-making within a high-stakes basketball environment among the things that stood out to the selection panel.
"His track record is clear," Longley told ESPN.
"His experience doing what we need is clear. It was the depth and breadth that he answered the complex questions we gave him, particularly around roster construction and culture of the club he's worked at and the challenges he had to face.
"I appreciated the way he approached his answers, and his thoughtfulness. That was very evident across the interviews: how well-considered he was, how knowledgeable he was, and the breadth of his knowledge."
Newman was doing scattered consulting work in analytics in 2018 when he first met David Kahn -- a long-time executive best known for his tenure as president of the Minnesota Timberwolves -- who was teaching at New York University. Newman's father, Peter, also taught at the university. At the time, Newman -- who had a brief acting career as a teenager, starring in the MTV drama Skins -- was pursuing his dream of working in a team front office, while Kahn was exploring the feasibility of launching a professional franchise in Paris, with an eye toward the 2024 Olympics.
When Paris Basketball was formed, Newman was brought into the front office, with a focus on analytics and scouting. Over time, his role grew, to the point where he ended up moving to Paris. The team started in France's second division with no European competition; by their third year -- Newman's second with the franchise -- they were promoted to first division, then played EuroCup basketball. Two years later, Paris won the EuroCup, and entered the EuroLeague.
It was an aggressive and impressive rise for a new franchise; one that consistently outperformed its spend with Newman in a leadership role. And, naturally, parallels emerge between Paris and Sydney, both of which are large, global metropolises that appear obvious hubs for professional basketball, yet present unique challenges amid competing entertainment options.
"Just winning in Paris, in basketball, is not enough, really, to attract attention," Newman said.
"It's not first from the totem pole, in sport or in anything, right? There's just a lot of stuff to do in Paris, and a lot of different interests.
"So, another appeal of Sydney, but also something that I'm really proud of, that we were able to do in Paris, is really build a basketball identity. We've had five coaches in five years... David [Khan] always had a broad-visioned mind of how he wanted to play. From the start, his inspiration for the team was the Showtime Lakers, and he just had a very clear idea that we wanted to be a fast, exciting team, and we wanted it to be different.
"Some of that was also financial, at the top level, that we weren't dealing with one of the bigger budgets early. In fact, it was one of the smallest. So, it all kind of lined up where we had this idea, we wanted to be exciting, and hopefully that'll allow us to be a little disruptive and play differently in a way that would give us an edge."
Two of those five coaches who passed through Paris during Newman's tenure are now sitting NBA head coaches -- the Memphis Grizzlies' Tuomas Iisalo and the Portland Trail Blazers' Tiago Splitter -- while former Kings head coach Will Weaver spent a season with Paris and played a role in Newman's first substantial visibility into both the Sydney franchise and the NBL.
"Will just spoke so positively about Luc, and everything he'd heard about the Denholm family was positive, and he coached Andrew Bogut," Newman said.
"All these different dynamics, in addition to how great the city was, how great the basketball culture there was... I asked a few other people who knew it from different angles and the feedback about everybody involved was always exceedingly positive."
That initial visibility alongside Weaver gave Newman -- a New Yorker -- a base understanding of Australian basketball, but he's aware of the gaps in his knowledge that need to be filled in order to do the job as effectively as possible.
"I've always watched and so my understanding on a superficial level is fairly good, but... it's another thing to be there and understand what's behind everything and what's driving things, and who's driving things," Newman said.
"I have a few thoughts and ideas but, for the most part in the early phase, it's going to be really leaning on people who have been here for a while, and also understanding their perspective.
"I need to talk to as many people as I can, and do my best to listen before coming up with any hard conceptions. I think I bring things to the job, given my experience in Europe and the EuroLeague, that could be really positive for the team. But, until you understand the people and internal logic of the league, what works, what doesn't. There are things that are true anywhere, and there are things that are very specific. For me, figuring that out before I make any sudden movements is very important."
The history of the Hoops Capital organisation -- and particularly the Kings' recent run of championship success -- was especially intriguing for Newman, who arrives on the back of a strong run of his own.
"When you win back-to-back championships, it says something," Newman said, referring to the Kings' titles in 2022 and 2023.
"We managed to eventually win our first French league title last year, and I know how hard that was to build, and I also know how much it takes, organisationally.
"You can only know so much about a job through an interview, or by asking around, but knowing it was an organisation that was capable of, not just winning one title, but back-to-back-titles... it's a pretty good indicator that, when you get under the hood -- even if there are things to try to push further in one direction or another -- there's gonna be some pretty good stuff there.
"You can't do that unless you have good people working really hard, and who are open to new ideas."