How the Adelaide Sixers laid down the boogie on the NBA stage with the Utah Jazz
THE Adelaide 36ers refused to be intimidated against their highly fancied — and highly paid — NBA rivals in their historic clash against Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City.
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IT WAS 20 minutes before tip-off in Salt Lake City last night when Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright got out of his chair and the locker room went quiet.
Until then the room was full of surprisingly relaxed chatter as the players prepared for the biggest game of their lives against the Utah Jazz in the NBA.
Wright stood in front of his team and spoke.
“No matter who I played against, and I played against some of the top players in the world, my mentality was always the same,” he said.
“I can respect the fact that you’re talented, I can respect the fact that you’re very good, but I’m not going to allow it.
“Now against everybody else you might be the best point guard in the NBA and the best point guard in college, but not tonight, not tonight. Tonight I’m taking all that s**t away. I’m gonna beat you, out-shoot you, out-work you.
“Some of these guys are better than us, some of them are not, believe it or not, just because they’re in an NBA uniform it don’t mean s**t. You go out there and compete.
“Shoot your shots, I don’t care if you’re 2/2 or 0/10 you guys have done a good job of shot selection in pre-season.
“Be true to who we are. Fast, fierce, confident, bold, that’s who we are.
“Is it stupid to come here and try to run with an NBA team? Probably. The scoring will be 150-149 and we win by one. Now go get em.”
By the time the 36ers players filed onto the court for the national anthem in front of 18,000 people at Vivint Smart Home Arena there was excitement. But earlier there would have been nerves.
That morning it was Wright’s 80-year-old father Willie who broke the ice when he stepped onto the team bus.
The players were going for their final game-day shootaround and along with their backpacks there was a nervous energy on board.
“I brought my jersey in case ya’ll short,” Willie said with a straight face as if he was serious.
“But you’ve got the captain’s number (Daniel Johnson’s #21),” a player shouted from the back row.
“Yeah he’s my favourite player but that’s too bad,” Willie said and the bus broke into laughter.
It had been a big week for the team. Long flights, hard training and lots of meetings but the moment they’d been waiting for was nearly here.
At 9am the players and coaches were summoned to the hotel room of assistant coach Kevin Brooks for their video review so they could study their opponent.
As they huddled around the TV to watch the first quarter of Perth’s capitulation to Utah last weekend, Wright did almost all of the talking.
“A big part of Perth’s issue in this game was Perth wasn’t being Perth,” he said like a school teacher at the front of the classroom.
“They didn’t come out pushing, diving on the ball, maybe they respected the NBA players too much.
“We are going to play to our own personality. We’re gonna mix it up, there’ll be some mismatches, we’ll run some iso (isolation) plays, I want you to make quick decisions, move the ball fast same as we always do.”
JOEY was right. No one expected Adelaide with a salary cap of $1.5m to be competitive let alone beat a team with a salary spend of around $117m.
When the team arrived at Los Angeles Airport on Monday after nearly 20 hours of travel, the immigration officer looked them up and down even more than usual.
“Are you guys playing the Jazz?” he asked team leader Joe Tertzakian who was bleary eyed and wearing a 36ers polo shirt.
“The Utah Jazz?” the immigration officer repeated as if Tertzakian didn’t hear the question and while looking at Harry Froling and Jack McVeigh bright pink backpacks which is a tradition for rookies on the team.
But Adelaide likes the underdog tag. One of the team’s traits under Wright as coach has been the closeness of the group and as players waited for their bags more than one asked 74-year-old president Ken Cole if they could help with his.
Players only had two hours at their hotel on Monday before boarding the bus for training at the University of Utah and Brooks copped the first $50 fine for being two minutes late.
“That’s in US dollars too,” said Majok Deng.
Wright was as tired as the players when they hit the court for their first session but showed no sympathy, calling them in after 10 minutes.
“Are you guys tired? You’re supposed to be tired,” he said.
“But don’t act tired. Do whatever you have to do to get yourself up, get your body language right and if you see someone not doing that pull them up on it.”
Strangely when training had finished and players grouped at either end of the courts to practice their shooting, it was Wright who eventually had to tell them to get off.
“C’mon let’s go home,” his voiced boomed across the empty stadium.
On Tuesday the team had its first look at Vivint Smart Home Arena where they would play the Jazz and where the floorboards are so shiny you can see your reflection.
When they went back to the stadium that night this time the stands were full and they were spectators to see Utah play Toronto in a pre-season game.
“They’re big,” a Sixers official commented.
For the next two hours the players sat in two rows at one end of the court watching the Jazz come from 14 points down to win by 15 and the look on some of their faces was as if they were thinking “we’re next”.
By training on Wednesday Adelaide started talking about Utah more specifically.
“Who was guarding Rubio?” Wright asked during game-simulation.
“Keep communicating, don’t fall asleep off the ball because they’re cutting.”
Brooks was just as vocal as he stepped on court reading a set play from a piece of paper scribbled with notes.
“Ingles always likes that side, when Joe comes off that screen you know he’s coming off tight,” Brooks said.
“That will be (Derrick) Favors and that will be (Jae) Crowder. Crowder is a little bit better shooter.”
WHEN game time finally arrived on Friday, the players sat in desk chairs in a big circle inside their locker room.
Their names were written on a piece of masking tape and stuck to each locker and the mood was surprisingly relaxed.
“Are you bored Drim?” strength coach Adam Murphy asked Anthony Drmic.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen you stretch all pre-season.”
When Wright got up from his chair the mood then turned serious and the players listened. They needed to know their coach believed in them.
As much as NBL players have said they’re living their dream to play an NBA game this week, it still takes a certain amount of courage to put yourself out on court with these giants and expose yourself and your game to the world.
By the time the Sixers hit the court they were not overawed.
Watched by owner Grant Kelley who arrived in Salt Lake City an hour before tip-off after his second trip to the US in a week, they settled quickly into the pace of the game.
They got two good early looks at the rim but missed both shots before import Jacob Wiley completed an alley-oop.
At quarter-time they were leading 31-28 and fans were thinking ‘surely not, we couldn’t. Could we?’
Utah was always going to respond and they did by half time to take the lead.
And when they rested their starting five in the second half, it made matters worse because their ‘second five’ was arguably hungrier for a win and to impress the coach.
The Sixers were still within striking distance of eight points at three-quarter-time, but the 48-minute game compared to 40 minutes back home caught up with them and Utah won 99-129.
But Adelaide players had done themselves proud, certainly their owner proud, as well as their club and their fans.
They also made the Jazz sit-up and as is their social media hashtag ‘take note’.
Post-game, one Utah Jazz player and an official spoke to Wright just outside the locker room where they admitted the Sixers “shocked them” early.
They couldn’t do it for 48 minutes but even just for 24, just as Wright had asked them to, they competed and believed they belonged.
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Originally published as How the Adelaide Sixers laid down the boogie on the NBA stage with the Utah Jazz