Adelaide 36ers
The Adelaide 36ers are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League. The 36ers are the only team in the league representing the state of South Australia and are based in the state's capital of Adelaide. The club was originally called the Adelaide City Eagles when they joined the NBL in 1982, but changed their name to the 36ers the following year. The 36ers nickname comes from the fact that the Colony of South Australia was officially proclaimed on 28 December 1836. Since 2019, the 36ers play their home games at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
The 36ers' tally of four championships is equal with the New Zealand Breakers, and fourth only behind the Sydney Kings, Melbourne United and Perth Wildcats as the most by any club in the NBL's history.
As of 2024, the 36ers are the only NBL team to defeat a team from the National Basketball Association, having beaten the Phoenix Suns 134–124 in a preseason game on 2 October 2022.
History
1980s: The Golden Era
After the demise of the Forestville Eagles at the end of the 1981 NBL season had left the West Adelaide Bearcats as Adelaide's only representative in the NBL, the Basketball Association of South Australia formed a composite team representing all the state league teams. This team was known as the Adelaide City Eagles when they joined the NBL in 1982. Mike Osborne was appointed as team coach, Chris Stirling was captain and the team, like West Adelaide, played out of the 3,000 seat Apollo Stadium. The Eagles performed well in their first season but missed the playoffs finishing in 7th place on the ladder with a 15–11 record. The championship was won that year by the West Adelaide Bearcats who featured future 36ers in 1982 NBL MVP Al Green, Moscow Olympian Peter Ali and veteran guard Ray Wood.The Adelaide City Eagles changed their name after the 1982 season to the Adelaide 36ers to reflect on the history of South Australia's proclamation in 1836. Mike Osborne continued as head coach while David Winslow was named team captain. The 36ers once again missed the NBL playoffs in 1983 finishing 6th on the ladder with an 11–11 record.
The 1984 NBL season saw the 36ers reach the NBL finals for the first time, finishing the regular season in 3rd place in the Western Division with a 16–7 record. The team lost their Elimination Final to the Nunawading Spectres 108–101. Mike Osborne was subsequently released as head coach.
Following the 1984 season, the West Adelaide Bearcats merged with the 36ers to form one 'Adelaide' team in the NBL, with the Bearcats providing six players to the roster.
Former Australian Boomer and 1964 Olympic representative Ken Cole was signed as coach of the Adelaide 36ers for the 1985 NBL season. Under Cole, the 36ers became one of the league's premier teams. Import players including centre Bill Jones, New York-born combo guard Al Green and an NBL rookie in 24-year-old Power forward from Philadelphia, Mark Davis who joined the team 5 games into the season after dominating the local league with South Adelaide, combined with local players Darryl Pearce, team captain Peter Ali, young gun Mike McKay, and veteran Ray Wood to help Adelaide to a 20–6 record and second on the regular season ladder behind the Brian Kerle coached Brisbane Bullets who featured Australian Olympian Larry Sengstock, arguably the league's best player and former West Adelaide championship player Leroy Loggins, Ronnie "The Rat" Radliff, and the "Black Pearl" Cal Bruton. The team had a bye going into the semi-final where they easily defeated for the Newcastle Falcons 151–103 at home in what the then record semi-final win in the NBL, something Ken Cole had publicly predicted would happen. Leading 105–84 going into the last period, Cole told his team that he wanted a record score for a Semi-final and the team responded, producing a 46–19 last period to blow the Falcons away and get the record. In the last single game NBL grand final ever played, Adelaide were up against the Brisbane Bullets on the Bullets' home court. Going into the final period the game the Bullets' were leading 78–74 but a 42–21 last period in favour of the home team with Loggins leading the way saw Adelaide fail to win their first grand final going down 95–120.
1985 would see Al Green set a single season points per game record for the 36ers when he scored 31.0 ppg in 28 games played. Green, who Ken Cole chose to move to Point guard and leave Darryl Pearce at off guard, adjusted to his new role running the team's offense and also led the team in assists for the first time averaging 5.1 per game. His form saw him selected to his second All-NBL First Team after also winning selection in 1981 while with West Adelaide. For his efforts during the season, 19-year-old guard Mike McKay was awarded the NBL's Rookie of the Year award. McKay played all 28 games, averaging 12.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.
1986 would see the Adelaide 36ers win the first of their four NBL championships. 27-year-old import centre Bill Jones replaced Peter Ali as captain and former import forward Dwayne Nelson returned to the team after a year away, while Ken Cole would win the NBL Coach of the Year award after guiding the team to a 24–2 record, 5 more wins than the second placed Canberra Cannons. The 36ers were undefeated at home during the regular season going 13–0, the first time a club had gone unbeaten at home in league history. The two games the 36ers lost in the regular season were both last second shots against the West Sydney Westars and Coburg Giants respectively. Those two losses ultimately denied Adelaide a perfect season but earned the team the nickname "The Invincibles". Again earning a bye into the semi-finals, Adelaide this time accounted for the Illawarra Hawks 116–92 before moving onto their second grand final in a row, this time to be played over three games instead of the single game that had been in place previously. Once again facing the Brisbane Bullets, the 36ers won the first game of the series 122–119 in overtime in front of a then NBL record crowd of over 11,000 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Back home in Adelaide the 36ers would lose only their third game of the year when they lost Game 2 83–104 at Apollo. The final game played at home in front of a packed Apollo Stadium saw the Adelaide 36ers win their first championship with a 113–91 victory. Mark Davis finished second in the NBL in total rebounds, won the NBL Grand Final MVP award and also won selection in the All NBL First Team. The 36ers average winning margin in 1986 was 17.8 points and 25 years later during the 2011–12 NBL season, the 1986 36ers were named the league's greatest ever team on the NBL's official website.
Despite the on court success there was controversy at the club during the 1986 season with coach Ken Cole suspended towards the end of the regular season by the club board over his smoking of marijuana joint during a road trip to Brisbane, a situation that Cole was open about and never denied. Indeed, in a television interview he stated that he was recommended it by his family doctor as a way of dealing with health problems and physical pain. After the story was broken in one of Adelaide's daily newspaper's at the time, The Advertiser, Cole was suspended by the club for the last two games and the team was coached by his assistant Don Shipway. Before the playoffs, the players got together and went to the club board demanding Cole's return, going so far as to tell the board that they would refuse to play unless Cole was coaching them. Under immense pressure from not only the players but the general public of Adelaide who supported Cole despite his admitted use of the drug, the club board relented and Cole returned for the 1986 playoffs, though it was known that he would be sacked over the incident at the end of the season regardless of a championship win or not.
Ken Cole, the 1986 NBL Coach of the Year and the 1986 championship winning coach was replaced for the 1987 NBL season by former Nunawading Spectres import guard Gary Fox, who would continue the work started by Cole by coaching Adelaide to their second minor premiership in a row with a 21–5 record, though their coaching styles were vastly different. While Cole was a coach who was high on motivating his players, Fox ran a much more stringent operation and the free-flowing 36ers of 1985 and 1986 became far more structured, much to the dismay of Al Green and Mike McKay who preferred a more free flowing offence. However, despite the change, for the third season running the team had earned a bye to the semi-finals where this time they would face the Perth Wildcats who were in their first ever playoffs. In a major upset the defending NBL champions lost the series 2–1 to the Wildcats. They won 99–98 in Perth but then lost games two and three 99–101 and 93–103 at Apollo. Perth had emerged from the doldrums of previous years and were the emerging power team in the NBL. The Wildcats and new coach Cal Bruton, who had left Brisbane after a public falling out with Bullets coach Brian Kerle following the 1986 season, built a team with the aim of beating the champion 36ers. Bruton recruited James Crawford to counter Mark Davis, former Harlem Globetrotter Kendall "Tiny" Pinder to counter Bill Jones, they had team captain Mike Ellis to counter Darryl Pearce and Bruton himself to oppose his best friend off the court, Al Green. The ploy worked with the Wildcats defeating the 36ers in what was considered an upset, though the Wildcats would be swept in the Grand Final by the Bullets.
After winning the Grand Final MVP award in 1986, Mark Davis would continue to have a major impact on the NBL when he jointly won the league's MVP award with Brisbane's Leroy Loggins. Davis also led the league in rebounding for the third straight season, averaging 17.8 for the year.
Adelaide finished with their third minor premiership in a row and the second under Gary Fox after finishing with a 19–5 record in 1988 but would again be beaten Semi-finalists. Bill Jones was replaced as team captain by Fox who appointed Australian Boomers representative Darryl Pearce as the new captain. Against the Ken Cole coached Falcons in Newcastle in Round 2, Darryl Pearce would set a still standing single game scoring record for the 36ers when he scored 48 points including 11 of 14 three-point attempts. 1988 also saw, Adelaide born centre and Australian Institute of Sport attendee Mark Bradtke make his NBL debut for the 36ers. Bradtke had been signed by Ken Cole in 1986 as a 16 year with more growing to come. Bradtke however, living in Brisbane at the time, committed to the AIS for two years before joining Adelaide. Playing mostly as a backup centre to the more experienced Bill Jones, Bradtke played in 23 games, averaging 7.4 points and 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game.
Both Darryl Pearce and Mark Bradtke won selection for Australia at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, helping the team to finish 4th after being defeated 49–78 in the bronze medal playoff game by a United States team that included future Hall of Fame players David Robinson and Mitch Richmond as well as NBA players Dan Majerle, Danny Manning and Hersey Hawkins. Bradtke's selection at age 18 making him the youngest player at the time to ever represent Australia in Basketball at the Summer Olympics.
1989 was to be Gary Fox's last season with the Adelaide 36ers and it saw the team drop to 6th on the regular season ladder with a 15–9 record. Bill Jones left the team to join former coach Ken Cole in Newcastle and was replaced as an import player by 1983 NCAA West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year and former Los Angeles Lakers draft pick, Orlando Phillips. The team had a down year by its recent standards and Adelaide was eliminated in the Elimination Final by their playoff nemesis, the Perth Wildcats. With Jones now gone from the team, Mark Bradtke became the starting centre for the 36ers and his star continued to rise with the Olympic representative winning the NBL's Most Improved Player award. Bradtke averaged 15.0 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game over the 24-game season.