Adelaide 36ers reveal new co-captains ahead of Jazz game
The Adelaide 36ers have revealed their two new co-captains for the upcoming NBL season — their first task? Skipper the team in a pre-season friendly against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City.
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NBL veterans Kevin White and Brendan Teys will captain the Adelaide 36ers this season and take charge for their first game against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on Sunday.
The pair was announced as the team’s new leaders, taking over from Daniel Johnson, before training at Vivint Smart Home Arena on Friday.
Adelaide changed the process for deciding on its captaincy this season, moving away from a player vote and instead implementing an application process that required candidates to front a panel.
Coach Joey Wright said the panel decided on “two outstanding candidates” rather than one with Teys, 29, and White, 32, sharing the job.
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Teys led the Sixers in 2017-18 when they made the grand final while White has played 211 NBL games including captaining Illawarra.
“They both exude what you’re supposed to be about when it comes to team,” Wright said.
“More power in two, from a coaching point of view we expect the guys to echo the sentiment of our staff, even when it’s hard, sometimes they might walk out of here with their mates hating them, but team-ship is more important than mateship, so sometimes they have to be that guy.”
Teys said he was thrilled to be back in the role.
“I’m super happy, I was a little bit upset last year that I missed out but to get the opportunity to represent such a great club again is a great blessing for me,” Teys said.
“I fully supported DJ (Daniel Johnson) in his position but nothing changed from my responsibility apart from the title, so I continued to try to be the voice of the team and hold people accountable.
“To be able to accept this role with Whitey, I think we compliment each other perfectly, Whitey is a more of an in-your-face keep people accountable kind of guy and it’s almost like the devil on one shoulder, angel on the other, so we come at people from different angles which is good.
“I’ve been around the system a lot so I know what Joey’s thinking and what he needs from his players, so I’m able to echo that on the court, let guys know what they need to be doing and where they need to be.”
Teys captained the club in the 2017-18 season which ended in heartbreak when they lost the fifth and deciding game of the grand final series to Melbourne.
He fought back tears watching the presentation ceremony unfold and said he was desperate to get back there for another shot at it.
“We had a lot of personalities, we had Josh Childress, Mitch Creek, Nathan Sobey, Shannon Shorter, Hodgy, there was a huge list of great players and big personalities so I was able to manage that pretty well,” he said.
“What you strive for every season is to get to the grand final and win a championship so I was obviously hurt last time and a lot of stuff didn’t go our way in that series, hopefully we can find a way back there.”
White was recruited to Adelaide in the off-season because of his leadership and said it was “pretty special” to be captain alongside Teys.
“It was something I had a chance to sit down and talk about with Teysy and DJ, not step on anyone’s toes coming in, but for me being a leader and being vocal and holding people accountable is something that’s come naturally through my career,” White said.
“I didn’t want to take it away from Teysy because he’s an unbelievable leader and unbelievable guy and this club wouldn’t be in the position that it’s in without Brendan Teys.
“To be asked to be a co-captain and do this journey together was something I thought was pretty cool.”
White said he had stayed true to himself from his first day of pre-season with the 36ers.
“If I was to come in week one and not say anything and float by then week two or week three start calling people out and being vocal, they would have been like ‘what’s this about?’” he said.
“But I came in from day and set that tone, people know what you’re about, and some guys might have thought ‘shit, what is Whitey talking about?’ but I guess one of the things we’ve been speaking about with Joey is echo the messages that he wants.
“Although you don’t agree with what the coaches want at times, if you have collective buy in from a group of people and people driving that, the majority of the time you’re going to be successful.”
White believes Adelaide is good enough to play finals this season if it gets “collective buy in” from the group.
“Bringing Jerome (Randle) in just this week is a massive thing, take nothing away from DT (Deshon Taylor) he’s been an unbelievable competitor, but to bring someone like Jerome in who is a proven winner with experience all around the world, he’s only going to add fuel to the fire.
“You look around the league and every team has very similar things, probably a bit more firepower around certain positions, but Adelaide has been unbelievable in punching above its weight without the budget of other clubs.
“If we can get everyone to play between 90-100 per cent of their capability I really think this team can play finals and from there anything can happen.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Originally published as Adelaide 36ers reveal new co-captains ahead of Jazz game