Adelaide 36ers refuse to ‘mortgage future’ on Jerome Randle, building a title team the club’s goal
THE Adelaide 36ers have refused to mortgage the club’s future on league MVP Jerome Randle, despite making an offer which would have kept him among the NBL’s highest-paid players.
THE Adelaide 36ers have refused to mortgage the club’s future on league MVP Jerome Randle, despite making an offer which would have kept him among the NBL’s highest-paid players.
In two seasons with the Sixers, Randle, 29, led the NBL in scoring, was twice an All Star Five First Team selection and this year won the MVP award after averaging 21.3 points and 5.4 assists.
An unsourced report saying Randle was not made an offer by the 36ers before departing to play for Limoges in France, was hotly disputed on Tuesday night by Adelaide coach Joey Wright.
“Yes, an offer was made to Jerome initially that still would have made him among the top-five highest-paid players in the league,” Wright said.
“Last season he was in the top three.”
That assertion also flies in the face of unsourced and erroneous claims Randle was paid “under market value”.
“He asked for an increase but I thought it was more important for us to retain our core group of guys than to deplete the group we have now, to accommodate Jerome,” Wright said.
“We haven’t definitively ruled Jerome out and we made an offer before the end of the season.
“He rejected it.”
Adelaide won the regular season championship for the first time since 2000 but was bundled out of the play-offs 2-1 by Illawarra in the semi final round.
When the Hawks eliminated the 36ers at Adelaide Arena, Randle’s wife Zhordan was involved in an incident with a group of jubilant Illawarra supporters, tipping food onto some of them, including an eight-year-old girl whose head was covered in tomato sauce.
Zhordan was escorted from the scene by security staff, the incident dealt with “in house” by the 36ers. But it definitely left a sour taste.
“Right now, we’re looking at every great player,” Wright said.
“No-one is signing (new) imports right now.
“If we don’t retain Jerome and we lose fans over it, then they’re not the kind of supporters we want because they aren’t supporting Adelaide.”
Randle’s agent has spruiked him to both Melbourne United and Brisbane Bullets, both clubs baulking at his asking price.
It means he is unlikely to be back in the NBL unless he accepts the 36ers’ offer.
Adelaide meanwhile hasretained its eight-man Australian core, is likely to add United combo guard Ramone Moore and is looking at a playmaker and a big-man to complete the import trio.
Randle’s fellow 2016-17 Sixers imports, Terrance Ferguson and Eric Jacobsen will not be back, Ferguson heading into June’s NBA draft and Adelaide keen to upgrade on Jacobsen for a genuine title run.