Basketball On The Internet.

ADELAIDE 36ers fans believing the appointment of favourite son and club stalwart Scott Ninnis as coach would revive the ailing club and its NBL fans starved of success for more than two decades, need to think again as management announces Brendan Joyce as his new assistant.

Joyce, 64, already has steered a fledgling Illawarra Hawks program to its only NBL championship, logged 14 years as an NBL head coach, was a Boomers Olympic assistant coach and coached the Opals to a FIBA World Cup Bronze Medal and at the Rio Olympic Games.

He is precisely the type of mentor and guiding hand-type assistant that a rookie NBL head coach would be lucky to have by his side.

Except for one thing.

Scott Ninnis is no rookie NBL head coach.

He had two years at the helm of his beloved Sixers from 2008-10, following a pretty tough act in Phil Smyth, with whom he was an assistant.

And it was Ninnis who rescued and rejuvenated an Adelaide 36ers team universally picked for the bomb shelter under CJ Bruton last season, actually turning the team briefly into a genuine playoff contender in limited time as the interim.

His reappointment was a no-brainer and received with widespread enthusiasm throughout the 36ers supporter base and its long-suffering fans. (That 2002 championship was a long time ago now.)

With his appointment, naturally his first choice for assistant was another former 36er player and experienced basketball mind in Graham Kubank.

That was Kewey sitting alongside him as the Sixers gave their fans something to cheer about last season.

Instead, management has recruited Joyce for the role. Again, the man has the credentials for the head coach's role but he is not the man Ninnis requested.

Add the cost of relocating Joyce compared to whatever Kubank, like Ninnis an Adelaide resident, would have required to continue in a role he wanted and the head coach coveted for him, and the decision smacks of hierarchy showing once more that "it knows better".

How has that worked out for them over the past few years?

Don't be surprised either if Ninnis ends up coaching a team largely selected by someone such as 36ers CEO Nic Barbato or the new GM of Basketball Operations Matt Weston. Or both!

You know, the way Bruton originally was lumbered with a team selected by Jeff Van Groningen, under whatever grand title the club was bestowing at the time.

Yep. Different day but it's the same old, same old "we never learn" mantra, masquerading as innovation and progress.