36ers owner hits back at ‘nonsense’ emergency meeting claims from Kings minority owner

Adelaide 36ers have, in recent seasons been labelled a “basket case” franchise – a club unable to build sustained success or a winning culture.

That narrative has flipped in NBL26.

With a clear vision from ownership, front office, coaches and players, the 36ers sit 21-8 through 19 rounds, holding top spot on the ladder with three rounds remaining.

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But following their loss to the South East Melbourne Phoenix, reports surfaced suggesting internal “crisis/emergency meetings” had been held regarding the future of head coach Mike Wells.

The situation escalated when Sydney Kings minority owner and assistant coach Andrew Bogut took to X.

“Pretty wild league where the ‘leaders’ of your team meet to chat about firing your Head Coach, whilst you sit in 1st place on the NBL Ladder, with only a handful of games to go until the playoffs!” he wrote on social media.

Those comments prompted a response from Adelaide.

“I can confirm this is categorically untrue. 36ers have had no crisis talks with Mike Wells and I’m told he has the full backing of ownership,” 9 News Adelaide’s Will Crouch reported on X.

“Understand 36ers management have made an official complaint to Sydney – given Bogut is a minority owner.”

36ers owner Grant Kelley then addressed the situation on The FIVEAA Sports Show.

“Oh look, Andrew Bogut tweeted something about two hours ago, which in the interest of not sort of broadcasting nonsense I won’t go into, but look I just thought it was very unfortunate for an assistant coach of another club to do that,” Kelley told FiveAA.

“It’s not something we would do. We wouldn’t allow our assistant coaches, let alone anyone in the organisation, to comment on another club.

“We actually spoke to the Kings immediately and they’ve undertaken to us that they’ll speak to Andrew and hopefully we won’t see too much more of this.”

Kelley questioned the timing of the reports, given the club’s position atop the ladder.

“Here’s the reality and the numbers don’t lie. You know, we’re 21-8, we haven’t had a great sort of month and I think we’d be the first to acknowledge that. But that’s the best club record since the year of the Sydney Olympics,” Kelley said.

“It’s only the fifth time, by the way, in 44 years that we’ve had 20 or more wins and we’ve only had 21 wins twice.

“I think it goes back to the coaching switch that we made a couple of years ago. We had our reasons, we stayed, I think, appropriately professional and confidential on what those were.

“But I think a lot of people aren’t coping too well with the fact that Mike’s had a standout year and clearly is the right man for the job.”

Before Wells’ appointment, the 36ers had cycled through four coaches in five seasons. Wells led the team to 13 wins and a sixth-place finish in his first year, winning a play-in game against the Kings before falling to the Phoenix with a semi-final berth on the line.

Now, with 21 wins and four games remaining, Kelley was emphatic about Wells’ future.

“One thousand per cent. There’s no way that we would, to any coach, let alone to Mike, who has that record, you know, countenance any form of change or switch or anything,” he said.

“Firstly, it’s disrespectful to the record. Secondly, it’s not the reality of how this club runs.

“Myself, Nick Barbato, Mike and Matt Weston meet probably every second or third day. We obviously address challenges and issues when we meet.

“But there’s never a hint that those meetings are anything more than a really good club addressing what’s been, frankly, a challenging period on the court.”

Kelley acknowledged recent struggles, but reinforced the club’s broader direction.

“We’ve got a couple of challenges we’ve got to fix, and we’re acutely aware of that. But we’re a very solid organisation here,” Kelley said.

“I think it really irritates people who have had a crack at us for really much of the last decade to see the success of the 36ers. They argued against us for going to the Entertainment Centre, they’ve argued against Mike as head coach.

“The record stands for itself and what I can commit to our fans is this is the first of a multi-year run.

“Our objective this year was to go close to the championship, maybe to win it. We are still well on track to do that. But not just to leave it as a one-off, to actually build for the future. That’s why we’ve signed the players we have on three-year contracts.”

Despite the club’s strong position, Kelley admitted the past month hasn’t been ideal.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to think, because we’ve reacted as strongly as we have to some of the tweets, that we aren’t aware that we have not had the best month in our lives. We haven’t had a great month,” Kelley said.

“At the end of the day, people look at wins and losses. So we’ve got to be better than that and we’ve got to find a way to win.

“We’ve got four games to go to finish off the regular season. We believe that will be a mini playoff round for us.”

For Adelaide, the focus now shifts back to basketball.

But if the ladder holds, a finals meeting between the Kings and 36ers feels inevitable – and this saga has only added another layer to an already growing rivalry.