IF you were to take a drive down Barranca Parkway, there isn’t much that catches the eye.

Industrial buildings surround the wide, empty road, each structure identical to the one before. Palm trees — or the California equivalent — are scattered down the median, adding a certain brightness that seems to be ever-present in the city of Irvine. If you’re new to the area, chances are you might still get lost within the featureless landscape. But, if you look hard enough, there’s a chance you’ll find a hidden gem.

Stashed away in a parking lot within a parking lot, on Barranca, inside a nondescript building with no signage, you’ll find the ASICS America Headquarters, where Jordan “JLaw” Lawley and his trusted staff, are hard at work. The facility is a home away from home for the renowned NBA skills trainer and his team; and June is a particularly busy period in his gym.

Michael Carter Williams was one of Lawley’s ‘clients’, in the week leading up to the 2017 NBA Draft. The point guard was eyeing a return to his Rookie of the Year form, while Travis Wear travelled out to the natural-lit gym to work for his first shot at an NBA contract; one he’d later get with the Los Angeles Lakers, after the All-Star Break. The space was also home to the young Australian duo of Jonah Bolden and Isaac Humphries during their respective pre-draft workout processes, emphasising the one-size-fits-all bastion of skills development the gym has become.

In the midst of this range of athletes, was an unlikely, but now, seemingly very fitting, pair.

Chris Goulding and Josh Childress spent the American summer doing what they could to get better. Goulding, a one-time NBL scoring champion, was coming off an injury-riddled season, and preparing to embark on a yet another campaign with exceedingly high expectations. Childress, the former Sydney King, was getting in the best shape he could, with the hopes of scoring a professional contract, ideally back in Australia.

Workouts began on the sideline. JLaw would run the group in front of him through a stationary dribbling workout. A mixture of budding pros and up-and-coming high school players joined Goulding and Childress, but it was no-holds-barred. No one held back. Each day was dedicated to a different portion of the game; one day could be working to score off the catch, while others focused on attacking off a wing pick-and-roll.

Goulding didn’t show any signs of weakness, and he was never going to. Despite being 12 weeks off surgery on a troublesome left ankle, the Brisbane-bred guard didn’t want to slow down the progress he’d already made. By this workout — which saw him show off his silky jumper, both off the catch and off the dribble — Goulding had been running and doing individual training for two weeks, and was in the midst of his longest workout yet.

“Surprisingly, it feels really good after workouts,” Goulding told foxsports.com.au, after the hour and a half long session.

“I’m used to hobbling around for the rest of the day after practice, but now, get some ice on it straight away, do the right thing, and I don’t feel it for the rest of the day, which is something I’m really excited about.”

The physical accomplishment was welcome, but Goulding’s mind has already passed that point of the recovery process. After a season where he hobbled through a serious injury, once again falling short of a championship, and without an All-NBL First or Second team honour next to his name, Goulding just wanted to be himself again.

“Missing out on all of the teams, maybe they’ll let me get a couple of open shots this year,” he joked. “Maybe they think I’m not that good.”

Obviously, no team would ever think that. Goulding’s resumé is too immense for any opposing coach to ignore him when he’s on the court. The only key thing missing is a championship in the league he’s been the face of for the past half-decade. The 2016-17 season was one where a dejected Goulding couldn’t lead his stacked United team to the postseason, but, in a packed gym on a hot California day, he vowed to turn that around: “The proof will be in the pudding.”

* * *

GOULDING knew all along.

His ankle wasn’t right.

“What can be done?” he asked physios and doctors, amid injury struggles in late 2016. The reply always had the same tone; “we’ll worry about it after the season.”

“That’s generally when you know,” Goulding said.

The Brisbane Bullets’ young up-and-comer, Matt Kenyon, played an unwitting role in the saga that was Goulding’s ankle woes. The new issue surrounding Goulding’s ankle began before his stint with the Australian Boomers, at the Rio Olympics, and subsequently carried over to the NBL regular season. Goulding winced in pain as he stepped awkwardly on Kenyon’s foot, in a late-October fixture. In a sign of things to come, as Goulding was helped off the floor by Cedric Jackson and Tai Wesley, Bullets head coach, Andrej Lemanis, screamed for his clipboard and adjusted his team’s plan of attack, following a turn of events that saw his opponents lose their top scoring option. Despite getting back in the game, the Bullets couldn’t come away with the win, but it was evident this injury could prove to be costly for United.

Goulding would end up missing five games. United lost five in a row, over that stretch.

United hosted the Cairns Taipans in late-November, hoping to avoid a sixth straight loss. Goulding made his much-anticipated return to the lineup, managing a game-high 30 points.

Still, he wasn’t 100 percent. He wasn’t even close.

Any time Goulding would attempt to exert his ankle, or take any load through it, he’d have a ‘nagging pain’ that would shoot up his leg.

“It feels horrible to say this, but, ankle-wise, I was just trying to get through the back half of the season,” Goulding said.

“It was just about trying not to hurt it anymore, and trying to play as well as I could with it, without hurting it.

“Obviously, I think, if anybody watched me, they would realise I didn’t have much explosiveness in my legs. I couldn’t do the things I would usually want to do. The main feeling is just frustration, that I couldn’t be as good as I wanted to be for the team down the stretch.”

Goulding opted for surgery, and it didn’t take long after the season ended for him to make the decision. He described it as a ‘little clean out’; an operation he’d had before, in order for him to properly recover, and return to full health.

The rehabilitation was long and arduous. Goulding admitted he was overly cautious with the recovery, waiting 10 weeks post-op before he began running, and ever so slowly increasing the intensity of his workouts. He began to heal, and, where he was once at a point where he’d feel pain in his ankle just 15 to 20 minutes in a workout, that number increased to an hour before experiencing discomfort, during his time in Irvine.

Like any good trainer, Lawley offered a disciplinary run for any losing team in a drill, and, while Goulding’s team rarely lost the shooting competitions, he was more than happy to commit to that ‘punishment’. Even when his team won, Goulding would sometimes join the losing group on their run, before finishing the workout and running to grab his precautionary bag of ice.

“I’m not as explosive off it, as I was when I was 18, when I used to try to do through the legs dunks,” Goulding said.

“But, as far as limitations, what I feel on court, nah, I feel fine. Obviously I just can’t do as big a dunks as I used to be able to. I’ve been a professional athlete for 10 years. Everyone’s advice is that it’s the natural recession, getting old. It’s normal.”

* * *

PHIL Handy first started training Goulding was when the then-teenager was in Brisbane. When Goulding decided to become a professional basketball player, his hometown Bullets were the natural fit, and the playful guard would be attempting those through the legs dunks.

Joey Wright was the head coach of the Bullets at the time, where Goulding served as a development player for his first NBL team. Handy, now an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, has an expertise in player development, and he saw something special in the young, fresh cut Goulding.

“I knew right away that he had a special talent,” Handy told foxsports.com.au. “His desire to work and get better was very evident. He was one of the youngest guys on the team but probably the most skilled at that time.“

The advice Handy always gave to his pupil was to “be aggressive.”

Handy, a former Melbourne Tigers and West Sydney Razorbacks wing, described Goulding’s jumper as “one of the purest shots you will find,” and, over his years helping to develop the budding sharpshooter, saw a glimpse of NBA potential.

“He was one of the best young talents in the NBL, and I suggested to the Cavs that we give him a look for Summer League,” Handy said. “It just worked out as things do in this business. Sometimes you have to be in right place at the right time. I was very comfortable that he could play at that level.”

Handy has long been involved in the makeup of the Cavaliers’ off-season, and was able to help Goulding expose his game to a new, more esteemed audience. His praise of Goulding was unabashed, even claiming, “if he gets hot, there’s no telling what kind of night he could have.”

That evaluation was seemingly prophetic.

March 9, 2014 isn’t the date Goulding announced himself as a genuine Australian star, but that evening was when the sentiment was solidified.

There was already a wideranging consensus that Goulding was one of the NBL’s greatest scorers, in his era, and the Melbourne Tigers’ matchup against the Sydney Kings was all anyone needed to all but confirm it. Goulding scored the NBL’s first 50-point game since the league reverted to 40-minute fixtures, capping off a historic season, and capturing the hearts and minds of basketball fans across Australia. For all intents and purposes, that was the moment Chris Goulding became more than just a ‘superstar’ player in the NBL. He had become a brand.

As the league’s current Chief Executive Office, Jeremy Loeliger, told foxsports.com.au, “at the end of the day, kids, first and foremost, look up to those guys who are scoring buckets.”

Goulding became known as just that: a ‘bucket getter’, if you will.

Following that season, he would go on to join the Dallas Mavericks’ Summer League team, before playing for the Boomers in the 2014 FIBA World Cup. Continuing his successful 2014, he ended up signing his first professional contract outside of Australia, with Spain’s CAI Zaragoza. Still, despite Goulding’s growing profile and success internationally, it’s his home country where his legend, on and off the court, continued to rise.

Over the past 10 years, Goulding has had the top selling jersey in the NBL, according to those with knowledge of the figures, and he’s consistently sold as the face of the league.

“He’s an absolute fan favourite, because he’s got so much personality,” Loeliger said.

“He knows how to use it to best advantage, whether it be from a commercial marketing point of view, both for the league and in his own right, but also to get under the other team’s skin; to get under the opposition crowd’s skin. He’s just got this mannerism and way about him, that he’s both the hero and villain in equal parts, depending on your perspective. That’s exactly what the NBL needs at this point in its life cycle.

“If we could clone him, I certainly would.”

Loeliger likened Goulding to Ray Gordon and Tim Morrisey, both of whom won over their respective home cities, while riling up road fans. It’s the type of player, Loeliger says, that creates the “real, sticky, rusted-on, engaged fans.”

Though his athleticism has slightly diminished, the Chris Goulding we see, today, still has that dynamic scoring ability, irresistible range from beyond the three-point line, and the collective charm to boot.

That drop off in athleticism has been compensated with his earned leadership role, as well as his new-found desire to divert from his natural inclination of being ‘the guy’, showing that he can make those around him better.

“The biggest growth I have seen is his confidence,” Handy said.

“He is very sure of his abilities to play this game. That takes time for young players to develop.”

Despite the lack of team success — from a championship perspective — Goulding has forged an impressive legacy across the league, and in Melbourne specifically, where Loeliger says the United captain is “universally liked.”

“All the boys want to be him, and all the girls want to be with him,” Loeliger said.

“He’s probably the first household name in basketball, in Melbourne, for a very long time. If it’s not his name that everyone knows, it’s his swagger.

“And, if it’s not his swagger, it’s his ponytail.”

* * *

GOULDING will laugh if you tell him he’s already an NBL Champion.

He was a mere development player with the Bullets, when the franchise won it all in 2007. To Goulding, that doesn’t count.

The journey to win a first NBL Championship ring is still in the works, and now, he’s as close as ever. But, this isn’t just a chance for Goulding to, in his words, “tick the box.” It’s a sign of his immense growth over the course of his career. From a development player, to that pure scorer, to a leader on a franchise that’s naturally an antagonising figure, the immense burden of expectation that comes with the 2018 NBL Grand Final is earth-shattering.

Goulding doesn’t forget the postseasons he was a part of with the Bullets, even though he wasn’t close to being a major cog on any of those teams. He used the time in his hometown as a learning experience; one that would help him embrace his success, today.

“It was like, maybe I took it a little bit for granted,” Goulding said.

“It was like, hey, you don’t get the chance to do something special all the time, but, definitely as I get older, certain things become a lot more important to me in the game of basketball.”

Goulding is upbeat, heading into the championship series.

His team got a long rest, after their semifinal win over the New Zealand Breakers, giving them time to get healthy, and rest up for a matchup against a high-octane, run-and-gun Adelaide 36ers lineup.

As always, Goulding will have a lot of help, going into the Grand Final series.

On August 15, 2017, when Goulding walked past the office of his new head coach, Dean Vickerman, he was given the line, “I just had a really positive conversation with Casey Prather.”

Goulding was puzzled, “I was like, ‘Oh, really? I didn’t even know.’ He was like, ‘yeah, it looks good.””

The next day, United signed the two-time NBL Champion.

In somewhat of a change to United’s recent formula, the team’s front office looked like one that would, at the very least, try to create a culture within the organisation; something they struggled to do with so much turnover among personnel. Vince Crivelli brought in a championship winning head coach, in Vickerman, brought back the team’s ‘imports’, and so, in the attempt to mirror the practices of the likes of the Perth Wildcats and New Zealand Breakers — the two most successful clubs in recent memory, known for their impressive continuity — United has been rewarded with team success.

“I think our culture’s come a long way,” Goulding said.

“We have myself; I’ve gotten a lot better at trying to uphold standards of our culture. We’ve got a set of things we need to get done, and things that aren’t acceptable, and we’ve really bought into that.

“That translates on and off the floor. Everyone’s really bought in, all round, about how we feel, how we act, how we carry ourselves, in order to be successful.”

This is a far cry from last season’s United, who, despite a stacked roster, couldn’t even earn a spot in the postseason. It’s also a step forward for last year’s Chris Goulding, who noticeably laboured on his ankle for the majority of the back-end of the season.

That ankle, now, is as good as it’s going to be. Goulding worked hard to rehabilitate it, and, while the basketball gods tried to take him out before the season began — the 29-year-old went down with a rough case of appendicitis — we’ve been seeing more and more of the ‘old’ Goulding come to light, as of late. It’s the same Chris Goulding that Handy saw that glimpse of NBA potential in; the one who won the league over, for better or for worse.

Loeliger describes it as a “superhero mentality.“

“He can walk the walk, as well as talk the talk. That’s pretty important,” he said. “People will talk about him for many years to come, as a champion, regardless. But, it would be nice for it to be recognised formally with a ring on that finger, because he’s been a really loyal servant to the game, and to the league.”

That’s the only thing that matters to Goulding, at this point in his career, and it’s the only thing of significance missing from his resumé.

When the Tigers rebranded, becoming United, there was outrage across the NBL. Legends of the Tigers franchise threatened a mutiny, of sorts, and the losing seasons that followed only bolstered those critics.

“It’s proof now that it was all done for the right reasons,” Goulding said. “The crowds, the memberships, the way we’ve been going over the past few years has been really positive, and I think that reaffirms that it was the right decision. Victoria, the state; Melbourne, the city; we haven’t had a championship since the Dragons.”

On any given night, Goulding can be the most loved player, and most hated player. He has that effect on a league whose fans are just as volatile. One’s sensibilities, and one’s geography, will often dictate how that person feels about Goulding, who can be a truly divisive force. Whichever side of that equation you fall into, there’s no denying the legacy he’s created. Goulding has a chance to shore up that legacy — as one of the best players in the NBL’s modern era — and he could do it against Wright, his first NBL head coach; and Childress, the man he worked out with in that Barranca Parkway gym.