When: 3pm (AEDT), Sunday 8 January
Where: North Shore Events Centre, Auckland
Broadcast: NBL TV; SBS; Fox Sports; Sky Sports NZ
All the attention
Ahead of a season most pundits knew would be almost impossible to predict, there was one common theme in all the predictions – the Adelaide 36ers would finish last.
While their roster had some quality talent in Jerome Randle, Daniel Johnson and Mitch Creek, few believed a team with five professional rookies and two second-year pros could consistently produce the level of play required in the modern NBL.
Turns out though, coach Joey Wright had a plan all along.
“DJ, Jerome and Creeky coming into the year were the ones we wanted to throw all the attention to,” he said.
With Randle second in scoring and the league leader in assists, and Johnson 10th in scoring and second in boards, that has worked pretty well, but the injury that saw Creek miss 10 games threw a spanner in the works.
“Sobey’s obviously stepped up more than I had expected,” Wright said.
“With Creeky out injured probably a little bit more load on DJ, a little bit more load on Jerome, but Sobey’s stepped up and carried the torch for us.” Watch here.
