The former Perth Wildcats assistant coach would only spend the two seasons in the west before moving east for three more at Adelaide 36ers.

But it would not take long to uncover the secrets behind an incredible 34 consecutive years of making the finals as far back as 1987 including his time with a championship.

Amid all the hype over the glory of 2009-2010, Radford could not have been any further away from that moment more than a decade on.

COVID-19 and lockdown, self-isolation and social distancing presented the state coach unique issues that no whiteboard could plan out.

He had hundreds of junior talent preparing for nationals under his watch - alas from behind a computer screen.

"We set about a plan early on, not knowing the end point so we didn't want to go hard at the start with structured plans," Radford said.

Radford stayed in contact with up to 350 basketballers through various social media platforms, but also on phone calls and texts to mums and dads as Basketball Tasmania colleagues took annual leave.

For the initial six weeks, his charges inside homes and backyards, devised their own routine from worksheets.

But shooting charts was only going to last so long and Radford had to implement a less structured approach.

It called to show off video activity of players trying basketball workouts to help inspire and motivate others.

ELSEWHERE IN SPORT

When Sejr Deans set up his camera, his peers had to stop what they were doing.

"That got a lot of coverage with a lot of people, especially our younger athletes that it influenced," Radford said.

"They then copied that ball handling workout and then reposted it. That was inspiring for a lot of other kids."

The Riverside role model, who has already represented Australia under-16s, had to take things to another level.

It had been more than just ball-handling that resonated.

"What was inspiring for others and what got me was he wasn't on any basketball court, he wasn't in some big backyard that had concrete, but he was actually just outside his porch in probably a metre-by-metre area and he punched it out for two and a half minutes," Radford said.

"He was sweating, he was breathing heavy, he just went for it, but didn't need all the functions of the basketball environment that day."

By going viral like nothing they had seen, it showed a way out to beat of isolation.

Its collaborative appeal got staff out of the comfort zone.

"We actually got out and did it ourselves. It made us almost like we're human to the athletes - we're not just coaches," Radford said.

"We tried hard to produce content to keep it a bit light."

The period also reinforced that the game was about not limiting your boundaries.

"Everyone had a ball, but not everyone had a backboard and hoop up, space at home - that proved the challenging part," Radford said.

"What we did see though was the creativity that it did bring out in the athletes finding ways to train at home."

Subscriptions are available here.

Sign up to our Sport email here.