With Joey Wright’s exit to be announced in days, is assistant coach Kevin Brooks the man to replace him?
Joey Wright’s departure as Adelaide 36ers coach is set to be announced within days as his assistant Kevin Brooks enters the frame as his replacement.
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Joey Wright and the Adelaide 36ers have agreed to the terms of his exit after seven seasons and his 500th career game as an NBL coach in Perth last night.
Wright and the club have been in discussions for the past week and his exit is expected to be announced within days ahead of a formal goodbye at the club’s MVP dinner at the Entertainment Centre on Saturday night.
The club yesterday would not confirm or deny details of Wright’s pending departure, saying only that it would be inappropriate to comment on the matter until after the regular season was completed.
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Wright is contracted for the next two seasons but there has been ongoing speculation for over 12 months that he was preparing to walk away from the deal, and missing the NBL finals for the past two consecutive seasons after a grand final in 2017-18 made it a fait accompli.
That speculation intensified just over a week ago but Wright has continually said his focus was on Adelaide’s remaining games, while owner Grant Kelley and chief executive Ben Kavenagh have said a post-season review would determine who takes the club forward.
The Sunday Mail understands that while Wright and the club have agreed on a contract termination and payout, nothing has been signed and won’t be announced for at least 24 hours.
The 36ers are expected to start a national and international search for a new coach almost immediately and Wright’s current assistant Kevin Brooks is tipped to be in the mix.
In 2018 Wright said Brooks was stepping up and “going to be ready”.
“He needs to start dressing the part because he should be coaching in this league as a head coach in the next couple of years – hopefully here,” Wright said.
“I would love to have someone that echoed some of the things that we’ve done here and some of the culture that we’ve built here.
“I know ‘KB’ would have his own spin on it, but I know the cultural things that we’ve built, what’s important to our team, that he would stay with that. That’d be pretty cool to see.
“I definitely think the club would be in great hands with him. If you guys ever came to our training, he’s pretty much the voice of our training – good or bad.
“He pretty much runs training and does all of our scouting. He’s a huge part of what we do.”
After coaching Adelaide for the final time on Saturday night, Wright sits third for all-time NBL games coached behind Brian Goorjian (735) and Lindsay Gaze (651).
Originally published as With Joey Wright’s exit to be announced in days, is assistant coach Kevin Brooks the man to replace him?