1986 Adelaide 36ers season
The 1986 NBL season was the 5th season for the Adelaide 36ers in the Australian-based National Basketball League. The club won its first NBL Championship after defeating the Brisbane Bullets 2–1 in the NBL's first ever multiple game Grand Final series. In 1985, the 36ers just missed out on their first NBL championship when they had gone down 121–95 to the Brian Kerle coached, Leroy Loggins inspired Brisbane Bullets in the Grand Final that had been played on the Bullets home court, the Sleeman Sports Centre. The Adelaide 36ers played their home games at  the 3,000 seat Apollo Stadium. Built in 1969, the Apollo was (at the time) Adelaide's largest indoor arena. Coaching the 36ers as he had done in 1985 was former Australian Boomers Olympic Games representative (1964) Ken Cole. Captaining the team would be 6'9" (207 cm) American import centre, 27 year old Bill Jones. The 1986 Adelaide 36ers compiled a league leading 24–2 record in the regular season before going 3–1 in the playoffs to claim their first title. Awards. NBL Award Winners. All-NBL First team – Mark Davis () Grand Final MVP – Mark Davis NBL Coach of the Year – Ken  Cole NBL Leading Rebounder – Mark Davis (482 @ 16.1 pg) Adelaide 36ers Club MVP – Mark Davis Season summary. Regular season. The 1986 Adelaide 36ers were determined to go one better and avenge their Grand Final loss to the Brisbane Bullets in 1985. Former import player in 1984 and now Australian citizen Dwayne Nelson rejoined the club who were on the lookout for a player who could handle Brisbane's star import Leroy Loggins. Nelson, who had averaged 25.9 points and 10.1 rebounds in 24 games in 1984, adjusted well to his new role as a bench player backing up both Mark  Davis and Peter Ali. The 36ers enjoyed their best ever year when they went through the regular season with a league leading 24–2 record which included winning all 13 games played at the Apollo Stadium, the first time in NBL history that a team had gone through a regular season undefeated on their home court. As expected, the team was led by its Twin Towers import front court combination of centre Bill Jones and Power forward Mark Davis and along with the tough defence of 1980 Olympic Games forward Peter Ali and Dwayne Nelson, plus the scoring ability of guards  Al Green, Darryl Pearce and Mike McKay, the 36ers emerged as the league's dominant team. Adelaide only lost two games for the season, both away from home and both came from last second shots against the West Sydney Westars and Coburg Giants respectively. Those two losses ultimately denied Adelaide a perfect season by no more than a couple of seconds, but earned the team the nickname "The Invincibles", given to them by Adelaide's multi-award-winning basketball journalist Boti Nagy. The team generally dominated on his home court at the Apollo Stadium which was regularly sold-out for  games. The closest any team came to beating Adelaide at home was on 30 August against the Geelong Cats. With 13 seconds remaining, a 3-pointer from Cats veteran Boomers forward Ian Davies gave the visitors a 119–118 lead and it appeared might Adelaide would lose at home for the first time. Following a quick inbound pass, Mike McKay brought the ball down court and managed to get a pass through double team defence to an open Darryl Pearce who put up a 3-point shot with only 2 seconds remaining that missed. Captain Bill Jones flew high to grab  the rebound and in one motion tip-dunked the ball to give the 36ers a 120–119 win on the buzzer. On their home court, the 36ers had an average score of 123–92 while their average away score was 109–96. This gave the team an average score of 116–94 for the regular season. Despite the on court success, there was controversy at the club late in the season with coach Ken Cole suspended 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, stating publicly  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. The story was broken by journalist Andrew Both who was in Shipway's hotel room following their win over the Bullets when Cole asked those present if they minded him smoking the joint since he didn't drink. Also in the  room were Shipway and players Peter Ali, Darryl Pearce and Scott Ninnis who were only drinking alcohol. Before the playoffs, the players (who to this day believe that Both was made to write the story) 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. During the year there had been rumours that the club board had not been happy with Cole despite the team's success, with Cole called before the club board after the tight home win over Geelong (2 weeks before the marijuana incident) to explain why the team wasn't dominating like they had hoped (the 36ers had an 18–2 record following the win over Geelong). NBL Finals. Semi-finals. Along with the 2nd placed  Canberra Cannons, the 36ers were given a bye in the Quarter-finals. In their single game Semi-final against the 4th placed Illawarra Hawks, and with Ken Cole back as coach (when he was introduced to the crowd they gave Cole a 3-minute standing ovation showing their support), the 36ers as expected never gave the Hawks a look-in despite a heroic 28 points and 14 rebounds from their 6'10" (208 cm) Australian Boomers centre Ray Borner, with the 36ers leading 28–14 at the end of the first 12-minute period. Led by Darryl Pearce with 28 points and  7 assists, Al Green with 27 points and 8 rebounds, and with strong contributions from Mark Davis (17 points and 14 rebounds) and Bill Jones with 12 points and 13 rebounds, Adelaide ran out easy 116–92 winners to book their place in the club's second straight Grand Final. NBL Grand Final. The 36ers opponents in the 1986 NBL Grand Final would again be the Brisbane Bullets who had come from behind to win their Semi-final 120–100 over the Cannons at the AIS Arena in Canberra. After 7 years with the Grand Final being a single game, in 1986  the NBL decided to follow the NBA's model of a playoff series to determine the championship. The Grand Final became a 3-game series with the first game to be held at the Bullets new 1986 home, the 13,500 capacity Brisbane Entertainment Centre (by far the largest and most modern venue in the NBL in 1986, able to hold some 6,300 more than the next largest venue, the 7,200 seat Glass House in Melbourne) with Games 2 and 3 (if required) at the Apollo Stadium. To the NBL's delight, the series went the full 3 games with the  opening game in Brisbane attracting an Australian record indoor sporting attendance of 11,000. Game 1 in Brisbane was hailed as one of the best games of basketball ever seen in Australia. The Bullets led early, but a 28–15 second period with Davis leading the scoring and rebounding saw Adelaide shoot to a 52–41 half time lead. After sitting out most of the 2nd with foul trouble, Leroy Loggins lit up in the 3rd to drag Brisbane back into the game and Adelaide's lead was cut to 76–73 with one period remaining. Late in the last, Bill Jones pulled off  the play of the series when he stepped in front of Loggins to take a charge which saw Brisbane's leading man foul out of the game, though Brisbane rallied and the score was tied at 111–111 at the end of regulation time. In overtime the 36ers finally overcame the Bullets to win 122–119 and take a 1–0 series lead. Mark Davis led the way for the 36ers with 38 points, 23 rebounds and 5 assists. He was well supported by Bill Jones (30 pts, 17 rebounds and 3 blocks), Mike McKay with 16 points and Darryl Pearce with 13  points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. For the Bullets, Loggins had 38 points, 6 blocks and 4 assists. Adelaide were expected to wrap up the series in Game 2 at the Apollo where they had not lost all season. However, Cal Bruton refused to let the defending champions be swept. The Black Pearl scored 38 points and with Mark Davis restricted due to an elbow injury suffered early in the game, the Bullets ran out shock 104–83 winners and handing Adelaide their first loss at home since 15 June 1985 ending a streak of 20 straight home wins. Game 3 , played on 19 October, saw a 43-point turn around with the Adelaide 36ers winning their first NBL Championship with a hard-fought 113–91 win, though the scoreline didn't tell how close the game was for the first three periods with Adelaide only leading 80–76 going into the final period of play. Leading the way for the 36ers was Darryl Pearce with 27 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Mark Davis scored 22 points but dominated the boards, grabbing 25 rebounds, while Al Green finally put together a good Grand Final performance after relatively poor games (by his standards ) for West Adelaide in 1982, 1983 (where he fouled out), and again for the 36ers in 1985 where he again fouled out of the game, scoring only 15 points (well below his 1985 season average of 31.0 ppg). Green scored 22 points and grabbed 3 rebounds. The pivotal moment of the game came when Leroy Loggins fouled out in just the 3rd period. To that point of the game he had been closely checked by Peter Ali, Dwayne Nelson and Mike McKay in a great defensive performance which restricted a frustrated Loggins (who in 1986 averaged 29.8 points per game  which won him his second straight NBL MVP award) to just 6 points. Mark Davis with an average of 24.3 points, 19.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists over the 3 games was named the Most Valuable Player for the Grand Final series. Davis, who averaged 25.3 points and a league leading 16.1 rebounds for the year, was also named as the 36ers Club MVP winner for the second straight year and was also named at centre in the All-NBL First team. Accolades. Although debate still rages among fans of the National Basketball League, in 2012 the 1986 Adelaide 36ers were  named by the NBL as the greatest single season team in league history. In 2016, the 1986 NBL champion 36ers had their 30th anniversary in an official function held by the club in the Scouts Deck restaurant located in the 36ers home venue (since 1992), the Titanium Security Arena.