Adelaide 36ers co-captain Kevin White unloads on departing coach Joey Wright in explosive Twitter rant
Ex-Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright says his suggestion that players “hang themselves” was taken out of context. However, he remains unapologetic for his tough stance on the team.
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Former Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright has apologised for any offence taken over his “private comments” suggesting his players should “hang themselves”.
On Friday morning, Adelaide co-captain Kevin White released a screenshot on Twitter of a private group message involving 36ers coaches in which Wright said “F...k all of them. Hopefully it (mental wellness) gets low enough for them to hang themselves. F..king d...s.
“Maybe bit to harsh :)”
White took to social media after Wright blamed four players for the team’s demise, which led to his departure this week after seven seasons at the helm.
Wright today issued a written statement where he apologised for any offence caused, but remained adamant he had acted in the best interests of the team.
“I sincerely apologise if my private comments have offended anyone as they have been definitely taken out of context,” Wright said.
“There was an obvious separation between the players therefore a constant need for repeated messages.
“In my attempt to care and want more for each player and the 36ers, I was not willing to turn a blind eye to blatant disrespect between players and coaches.”
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Wright said he was leaving the club for his own mental health, but White said he would no longer be silenced despite requests from Sixers’ management and leapt to the defence of his teammates.
In an interview on SEN today, Wright claimed the group message had been leaked by a disgruntled assistant coach, an example of the “dysfunction” he was dealing with during the season.
“The departing (as coach) had nothing to do with Kevin’s comments, it’s an opportunity now for anyone weak out there to come at me because now that I’m not the coach I don’t have a voice or a stance anymore,” Wright said.
“Every team has comments they make behind closed doors.
“We had a team that wasn’t cohesive and my attempt at (that) were a lot of messages about coming together and tough messages about them liking each other, hanging out with each other and trying to do the right thing.
“The comments that were in a private chat message between coaches is an area where coaches go to vent – we go there to vent and say stuff – players have their chat messages that if published would look disastrous, it would defame everybody.
“We have a chat group with coaches and players both in it that I could put out messages that would make every single player on that team look like an idiot.
“That’s just not what you do because they’re going there to vent, crack jokes, some of the stuff we say is just that, and we put a disclaimer that this is not for public use, this is only private and never to be published.
“A disgruntled coach sent that over to the players and that’s extremely disappointing.
“Now with phones and stuff, all our information is (sent) through our WhatsApp group and it’s disturbing that someone would go in and take a private message out of there and take it out of context.
“I even say in there ‘too harsh’, which is a joke we use after we say something we know is wrong to say.
“And it was absolutely wrong to say, but it was only joking and for them to take it out of context shows the dysfunction I was dealing with this year.
“My exit conversation with Kevin White was about apologising to him for putting him under tough circumstances.
“I expected him to come in and be a leader and he kind of stood back. If I told the media the reasons why he told me he stood back he wouldn’t look that great, but I’m not going to do that. I will never, ever betray a coach or player’s confidence. What they say to me will always stay with me. I would never do that to him, even though he’s done that to me.”
Wright wants to coach again, but concedes the scandal may impact his future career prospects.
“That’s what’s disappointing, you go through 500 games, do the right thing, care for people and go the extra mile and, yeah, there were a lot of tough messages said this year,” he said.
“He’s responding to my comments about him not letting his players be attacked.
“I said in those comments it was my inability to get through to those players, it was my fault, I told them throughout the year it was my fault for not being able to get the message of team cohesiveness to them.
“I’ve said it to our ownership group, ‘they are not buying what I’m selling’ and I told them that was my fault.”
Wright said he first realised the 36ers had a culture problem in pre-season when he tried to room players together and they resisted.
“I knew (they) had some obvious differences. One of the tricks we’ll do as coaches is put them in close proximity to one another and they all snuck out and stayed in the rooms where they were more comfortable with,” he said.
“Two weeks later I was like ‘okay, we’re going to have to get on top of this’. But that’s what you do as coaches and I tried every technique I could. It was out of my wheelhouse, maybe a better coach could bring them together. I never asked a player to do anything that wasn’t about winning, excelling, or becoming a better individual and I never done that and never will.”
White – who was recruited by Wright and installed as co-captain with Brendan Teys this season – said he had been gagged by the club, but now wanted to speak out.
“I’ve been told to shut my mouth and it will be handled for weeks. Well, it’s now getting out of hand and I won’t stand for my teammates getting belted in the media,” he posted on Twitter.
“You rise as a team and fall as a team! That’s a winning cultures MOTO, every time it’s been the players. Spare me! 8 weeks ago we sat in a team meeting ... we were told ‘if we don’t make playoffs, people won’t think it’s because I’m a shit coach, they will just think I had a shit team’ ... another video session another meeting.
“This time ‘we have too many empath’s, too many guys soaking others emotions. Too many guys that care about their teammates situation and not worrying about themselves. I’m not built like that, I’m the opposite of an empath!’ Google that and see what man is coaching this club.”
“Still the guys shut their mouths and show up to train, play and do their jobs. All while copping this day in and day out ... did any of the other coaching staff, ‘High performance team’ or office staff do anything. No!!! is the simple answer. Another game day another inspiring pre-game talk ... this time ‘a racial divide’ has split the group and we don’t function together. If you don’t want to do it for your teammates go get 30 for yourself and then maybe you will help us win a game.
“Gee way to inspire young men! If you think this is something that has taken place over night .. you’re dead wrong.”
He then posted a screenshot of what appeared to be a group message involving Wright and Adelaide’s strength and conditioning coach.
In it, the strength and conditioning coach informs Wright that he may need to check on four players because their “wellness scores” were low.
A wellness score is believed to be an indication of how an athlete is feeling both physically and mentally.
“I’ll leave you with a message to our coaches group.”
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Wright’s response to the message was:
“F..k all of them. Hopefully it gets low enough for them to hang themselves. F..king d...s.
“Maybe bit to harsh :)
“Their have been all of the issues. They probably feel low bc they can’t ruin anymore people’s lives for at lest 3 months.”
White also posted:
“WOULD YOU PLAY FOR THIS GUY??? Would you let your kids play for this guy?
“For the sake of mine and my teammates mental health this needs to be exposed because it is not and should not be acceptable!”
Wright was a no-show at the club’s MVP awards dinner on Saturday night and was not mentioned by name once throughout the evening.
The club was in the midst of an external review and on Wednesday announced it had reached a financial settlement with Wright to leave despite having two years left to run on his contract.
The 36ers released a statement on Friday morning which said:
“The Adelaide 36ers are investigating comments made in tweets from co-captain Kevin White.
“The club takes the allegations seriously and will investigate further as part on an ongoing review.
“No further comments will be made until the conclusion of the review.”
An NBL statement said:
“The NBL is aware of comments made by Adelaide 36ers co-captain Kevin White on social media today.
“The league takes the matter very seriously and is working closely with the Adelaide 36ers and the Australian Basketball Players’ Association to seek further information.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au