Basketball On The Internet.

"BASKET CASES" is a basketball ebook I have been working on for several years and this is a random chapter - the classic finish of the 2001 NBL Semi Final.

A recent article I did for nbl.com.au (http://www.nbl.com.au/news/article/2012/october/bearcats-assemble ) attracted a fairly positive response so I thought there might be a readership for a random chapter from my ebook "Basket Cases - A First Hand Account of Basketball in Australia". This is a book about major events in our sport over the past 40-plus years that I was fortunate enough to see or experience first hand, and my insider retelling of those events.

 

THE NBL’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL FINISH
  
Wollongong v Adelaide, Semi-Final Game 3, 2001

Across three decades and more, the National Basketball League has had its share of on-court controversies. Most of these have been brought on by the personalities and some of the larger-than-life figures who inhabited the sport. Rarely, however, has a crucial game ended raging in controversy.

Back at the old Snakepit in Wollongong a long time ago, jubilant North Melbourne Giants coach Bruce Palmer leapt on court as the match finished, only to be tech fouled, the Hawks’ penalty shots stealing victory.

Most clubs have a story like that in their archives. But the fact not too many readily or easily spring to mind has meant there has been a hole in NBL folklore; a void if you like, waiting for that one memorable game.

Diehard fans will recall the controversy and furore surrounding the final seconds of the USA-USSR gold medal game at the equally controversial Munich Olympic Games back in 1972. It is unquestionably the single most amazing finish to a basketball game that any sports historian can remember. To this day, the USA has never collected the silver medals awarded after it lost 50-51 to the Soviets, believing it was harshly and unfairly dealt with by the officials.

Few games have the mystique and misconceptions of that classic clash between sporting styles and political ideologies.

But let’s be honest here. Every sport needs a good, meaty controversy and the NBL in Australia had never had a match that would forever divide opinion. That is until April 16, 2001.

The best game of the best series of the best playoffs the league had ever staged concluded as pure theatre with an ending that should live in eternity.

Before we get there though, it is important to understand what already had occurred in the build-up and for that, we need to backtrack just a little.

The Illawarra Hawks had changed their name to the Wollongong Hawks for the start of the NBL’s switch to a summer schedule in 1998-99. One of the few remaining foundation clubs, the Hawks’ history had not been littered with great achievement, semi-final appearances under David Lindstrom in 1986 and 1987 providing their deepest foray into the post-season.

Brendan Joyce had followed fellow Nunawading product Alan Black to the Hawks’ helm and was in his fourth season in 1999, having briefly tasted quarter-final action in 1998.

He had recruited C.J. Bruton, son of NBL Hall of Famer Cal, and promising 208cm centre-forward David Andersen into the team to play alongside the Bendigo-born pairing of Glen Saville and Mat Campbell – two young men who would shape the future of his ballclub.

Wollongong enjoyed a tremendous season, finishing in third spot with a 17-9 record. While the Hawks were swept aside 2-0 in the best-of-three quarters by fourth-placed Victoria, the elimination of Perth (6th) by regular season champion Adelaide and the sweep over Brisbane by second-ranked Melbourne meant Wollongong survived into the semi-final round as the highest-placed quarter-final loser.

In the semi-finals, the Hawks drew Adelaide, just as they had in their historic first semi-final appearance back in 1986. The defending champion 36ers took the Hawks 93-81 in Game 1 at Wollongong but had a nasty shock in Game 2 at their Clipsal Powerhouse stronghold.

With Bruton on fire, Wollongong had the match at its mercy with a three-point lead into the game’s final seconds. Adelaide ran a play for benchman Rupert Sapwell to take a 3-pointer – clearly not the player Wollongong expected.

Sapwell’s triple missed but quick thinking by Sixers’ power forward David Stiff to grab the offensive rebound and dish it back out to him gave the swingman a second attempt. This time it was nothing but net, 88-88, the crowd chanting “Roo” as Sapwell and his teammates headed to the bench on an obvious high.

Adelaide prevailed 99-98 in the overtime to clinch the series 2-0 but a new rivalry had been sparked into life. Still, it would continue to remain a one-sided rivalry in Adelaide at least, where the Hawks, it seemed, simply could not win.

It took a three-quarter court-length pass for a buzzer-beater from guard Rod Johnson in 1990 at the Apollo Stadium for Illawarra to grab its solitary win in Adelaide 112-111.

Season 2000-2001 rolled around with Wollongong still no further advanced in its bid to win in Adelaide but greatly advanced in its quest to make some noise at the post-season party. Joyce’s squad took their pre-season seriously, played against visiting national teams (in Australia for the 2000 Sydney Olympics) and came into the season with a full head of steam and confidence.

Few noticed the Hawks had recruited wisely and cleverly or that their preparation was impeccable.

The vast majority of pundits overlooked them in their pre-season predictions for the year ahead but I am pleased to say, I wasn’t among them. Impressed by what I had seen of the Hawks during the build-up to the Olympics and aware of an extremely consistent “rule of thumb” that in every season there is at least one team that reaches the playoffs out of leftfield, I guessed right that Wollongong would be that team. I picked them to make the semi-finals, which may have earnt me a couple of brownie points with Joyce.

Be that as it may, I believed it, even if Wollongong’s season started with a rocky home loss to West Sydney.

There was a lot to like about this team, right from incoming import point guard Charles Thomas through to veteran power forward Melvin Thomas. The balance was good and looked an effective blend with very strong chemistry.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, and 194cm, Charles Thomas was all class and NBA-confidence in his debut season. He had been drafted out of Eastern Michigan University by the Detroit Pistons in 1991, logged some games in The Show and also played professionally in Cyprus and Finland. Married with children and 30 years old, he also provided stable leadership and great court savvy.

Campbell and Saville had the starting off guard and small forward positions respectively, the former notable for his defensive work and 3-point shooting, the latter for his athleticism, above-the-ring exploits and burgeoning reputation as a “money player”. He could deliver in the crunch.

Melvin Thomas already had logged 252 NBL games going into the season, starting his career with the Hawks in 1992 as a 200cm import power forward out of Demopolis, Alabama.

Melvin eventually had played two years for Sydney and two more for Canberra before finding his way back to Wollongong where his career 22.2 points and 10.1 rebound average again would be appreciated. At 33, Thomas had played in just 12 playoff games in his nine-year NBL career for only two wins. In 2000-2001, he was a man on a mission.

Axel Dench played his junior basketball at nationally-regarded Nunawading before taking his 211cm, 110kg centre’s body to Gonzaga University where he started in 32 of 33 games in his senior year.

Securing him for the season was a minor coup for Joyce and the Hawks, his 46 per cent from outside the 3-point arc taking many by surprise.

Damon Lowery was picked up by Joyce from Kilsyth Cobras in the Australian Basketball Association’s South Conference. A tenacious 180cm of boundless enthusiasm and self-confidence, American-born Lowery had been plying his trade in the ABA for years where he was a regular All*Star, noted, among other talents for his 85 per cent free throw accuracy.

He had waited a long time for his NBL shot and was not going to waste a second of it. On more than one occasion during the 2001 regular season, Lowery came through for the Hawks with match-winning shots and inspiring play, the Wollongong Entertainment Centre steadily finding increasing patronage until it repeatedly became a sold-out venue during the astonishing playoff run.

Comfortable at forward or centre, 204cm American Matt Garrison had logged nine games with the Hawks to close the 2000 season and averaged 17.2 points and 7.0 rebounds. As a frontcourt back-up, he lengthened the depth of Joyce’s bench and could turn a contest with his enthusiastic and crowd-inciting play.

Strongman Grant Kruger brought 292 games of experience to Wollongong when he crossed from Cairns, the 202cm forward notorious league-wide for not needing the ball to take a shot. His “enforcer” reputation only hardened the backbone of the club.

Guards Matt Shanahan and Luke Doherty rounded out Joyce’s main 10-man rotation, the latter a local lad made good, Shanahan a 175-game benchman who had seen action at North Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns before finding a home for his back-breaking 3-point shooting accuracy at the Sandpit.

This was unquestionably a good team, even if a lot of people didn’t recognise it immediately.

Adelaide had won championships in 1998 and 1999 under new coach Phil Smyth and had made it to the semi-final round again in 2000 before losing a terrific three-game series to Victoria.

The 36ers’ versatile Olympic forward Martin Cattalini had headed to Spain for a playing stint on the Continent, opening the door for Kevin Brooks, one of the Sixers’ two star imports in the championship seasons, to return. The NBL had refused to register Brooks’ contract with the 36ers in 2000, claiming it would put the club over the salary cap considering it also had added Paul Maley to its championship unit.

A naturalised 201cm American-born forward, Maley had been buried on the Titans’ bench after being one of the North Melbourne players retained in the Giants’ merger with South East Melbourne Magic.

While the NBL had no tangible evidence retaining Brooks and adding Maley would push Adelaide over the cap, on the surface it looked fairly dubious that it could be achieved legally. Why bother tracking down the fire? The smoke will do, appeared to be the league’s philosophy. Hey, I won’t try blowing any smoke at you that suggests it was wrong necessarily. Just never proven.

What made the league’s action ponderable was that Brooks, who had won the championship series MVP in 1998 and was an NBL All*Star Five (First Team) selection in 1999, was then suddenly and seamlessly able to fit into the Sydney Kings’ programme. Not that the league was looking to get that result, you understand. Hell no. Perish the thought.

When Cattalini departed for the 2000-2001 season, Brooks was able to return to the 36ers, bringing his rangy 202cm, NBA skills and long-range bombing precision with him. Also able to slip into the line-up was Brisbane Bullets discard Mark Nash, another player adept at off guard or either forward position, and 197cm with it.

After languishing on the bench of the Boomers’ Sydney Olympic team, Sixers’ skipper Brett Maher had some points to prove in 2000-2001. Being the Larry Sengstock Medallist (grand final MVP) in 1999 and a First Team All*Star in 2000 was not enough to impress Australian coach Barry Barnes. Or, for that matter, his assistant cohorts Alan Black and Brett Brown.

Alongside Maher was one of the all-time great imports of the NBL, Darnell Mee, nicknamed the “Silent Assassin” in Adelaide for the many different ways this smoothly-skilled NBA athlete could kill opponents.

David Stiff was returning, bringing his unorthodox, step-around, double and triple-pump moves and rebounding fervour with him, often inspiring fellow 205cm big man Paul Rees.

That constituted the main contenders for starting berths, veteran Mark Davis still around but dangerously close to his use-by date, Rupert Sapwell seemingly struggling to find his niche in this star-studded outfit and Jason Williams content as the No.10 man.

The Sixers started the season with an impressive 92-84 road win over reigning champion Perth but Stiff aggravated a groin injury – later diagnosed as the soon-to-be-dreaded osteitis pubis – and would spend more than half the regular season on the sidelines.

Out of the blocks quickly, the 36ers had a league-best 5-0 record when they visited the Sandpit for the first time.

Having opened with the loss to West Sydney, Wollongong achieved a first, travelling to Melbourne and beating both the Titans (88-81) and Tigers (118-111) in the same weekend. Putting away Brisbane 106-79 gave the Hawks a three-game winning streak and 3-1 overall when the Sixers strode into the Sandpit.

When Wollongong prevailed 120-117, the wise heads began to take note. The Hawks bumped their streak out to five, sandwiched wins over Brisbane and Cairns between losses to Perth and Townsville, then went on the first of two six-game tears.

After dropping to Wollongong, the 36ers strung together three wins but that was the last time for the season they put together more than two wins in succession. Brooks was in a funk and appeared to have some attitude never previously evident. It was obvious the Sixers were battling to keep their focus when Brooks and assistant-coach Scott Ninnis came to blows at a training session.

Maley was drifting in-and-out of the line-up, his back injury having flared up again and there was some turmoil behind closed doors over his contract. The Mailman was convinced he had a three year deal – which meant a season to go beyond the end of this one.

The 36ers maintained he was on a two-year deal. Showing once again what a mess Adelaide’s paperwork was in the previous regime, both parties had contracts to substantiate their claims.

(How is that possible? Let’s just say, now you know why the NBL scrutinised the Sixers’ bid for Brooks to return in 2000 and wouldn’t give it the rubber stamp.)

Maley had played just 19 of Adelaide’s 31 games in the 2000 season and the 36ers were clearly concerned about his longevity and how keeping him on the roster would impact their long-and-short term goals. While conversations about his future were kept behind closed doors, Maley’s great popularity within the team polarised opinion as to whether the club’s stance was right.

Davis also was far from a happy camper. The MVP of the 36ers’ championship back in 1986 and league MVP a year later, he was now 40 and playing like it. Some champions can recognise the onset of age and adjust their games and/or lifestyles to accommodate a new or reduced role. That way they can add to their longevity and legacy, Bruce Bolden a terrific example. Some cannot, bitterness and recriminations only a DNP away.

Put it this way. Davis was not the Bolden model. In Brooks, he found a disgruntled soulmate. How this impacted on Mee, a close friend of Brooks, is debatable, Sapwell also part of the equation, regularly looking like a man in a crisis of confidence. Season 2001 spiralled very quickly from the penthouse to the outhouse for Adelaide.

When Wollongong arrived for the February 3 clash, it had no idea what was transpiring behind Adelaide’s closed doors but was on a mission of its own – to break the drought that had given it just one win in 12 years and not one at the Clipsal Powerhouse.

The Hawks were men possessed and took a 70-66 lead into the final quarter. Brooks was having his worst game as a Sixer – he would finish with 5 points on 2-of-15 shooting – and Maley was 3-of-11 and looked too shot conscious, perhaps trying to make a point to the club’s management.

Whatever, this was going to be Wollongong’s game, Charles Thomas and Melvin Thomas leading the way, Lowery hitting 21 points off the bench, Garrison grabbing 14 rebounds and Glen Saville 13.

Charles Thomas’ start to the third quarter was stuff for the time capsule, opening with a 3-pointer in transition, feeding Mat Campbell for a three, then nailing another triple to force an early Adelaide time-out.

Rees was the unlikely hero who turned the match back into the 36ers’ favour, his 15-point final quarter catching everyone by surprise, as did his 13 rebounds. So easily though, he could have gone from champ to chump. With 10.2 seconds left and the score 89-89, Rees collared a big defensive rebound and was fouled by Melvin Thomas.

He made his first free throw but his second missed and Melvin grabbed the rebound. With 1.6 seconds left, Rees was called for a foul against Charles Thomas, the Hawks playmaker with two free throws to win it. “I was sweating bullets, thinking this guy has NBA experience – he won’t miss,” Rees recalled.

But remarkably, Thomas’ first free throw never looked like going in and his second only tied the match, sending it into overtime 90-90. The golden opportunity to break the drought squandered, Wollongong showed tremendous poise to twice lead in the five-minute extension. But once Maher tied it with a jumpshot at 94-94 with 2:12 left, the end was in sight. Mee drove to the hoop and slammed down a dunk and the Sixers were not headed again, winning 104-98.

Winning in Adelaide had yet to be achieved.

Just six days later, however, the season-series was on the line when the clubs met again at the Sandpit, the tally at 1-1. If the clubs were to be tied at the end of the regular season on win-loss record, the winner of this game would take the higher ranking so there was plenty at stake.

The 36ers had Maher opening at his best with a 13-point quarter which, surprisingly, did not include a 3-pointer, his bread-and-butter transition shot. The Sixers took their 23-17 cushion out to 52-36 by halftime when Mee also asserted himself. A pair of triples by Dench and two more from Charles Thomas cut the deficit back to 68-76 with a quarter to play but Adelaide appeared to have the answers. When Stiff scored with 7:05 left, the Sixers were ahead 88-74 and life was looking rosy for Adelaide fans.

Enter Lowery.

The little guy with the big attitude was the only player on the Hawks roster who still believed they could get it done. He got busy in a hurry, swishing a 3-pointer, then a long jumpshot, the revival underway. With 4:28 left, Mee had the lead back out to 10 where it stayed until there were just 158 seconds left. That’s when Garrison’s jumper cut it to 85-93.

Melvin Thomas’ free throws with 1:57 on the clock shaved it to 87-93 and when Garrison forced Mee out of court, Lowery was swishing a 3-pointer for 90-93 with 1:50 left! After Brooks missed a long bomb, Charles Thomas found Melvin Thomas inside and with 64 seconds to play, Wollongong had it back to 92-93 and Adelaide was wobbling like jelly in an earthquake.

Fittingly, Lowery’s free throws with 32 seconds left gave the Hawks their lead and Charles Thomas had a chance to virtually seal it from the stripe with 15 seconds to go. Mindful of his miss in Adelaide which ultimately proved so costly, Thomas sweetly swished both and Wollongong was out 96-93. There was still time for a missed 3-point attempt from Mee and scenes of jubilation at the siren, the Hawks having kept Adelaide scoreless for the last 4:28 while producing a match-winning 13-0 run. Lowery had been the inspiration.

“How big is Damon Lowery’s heart?” Joyce beamed in the afterglow. “He was the only one who believed we could still win and he carried us with him. This is probably my greatest win as a coach.” Two months later, Joyce might think differently but this win, perhaps more than any other, indisputably established Wollongong’s bona fides as a team which had what it would take to win a championship.

The match in Wollongong was the first of Adelaide’s last seven regular season games, of which it won one. It was the first of the Hawks’ last 10 fixtures, of which they won eight. As it happened, winning the regular season series over the 36ers was not relevant to final top-six standings because Wollongong finished fourth with a 21-7 record, one win out of first place (Victoria 22-6, Townsville 22-6, Perth 21-7) and Adelaide limped into sixth on a 16-12 mark.

Drawing the championship-favourite Titans had most thinking Adelaide had the early-exit pass and when it lost 96-101 at home to start the best-of-three quarter-final series, few would have given any credence to the 36ers’ championship chances. Say what? They would be lucky to force Victoria to three games. But “luck”, “Victoria” and “playoffs” are three words most NBL fans do not associate in the same sentence.

The Titans lost key defender and perimeter shooter Jason Smith to a severe knee injury late in the Game 1 win and he was done for the year. Game 2 in Melbourne turned into a 96-83 rout by the 36ers and when Tony Ronaldson was unable to play in the decider, Adelaide seized another 115-103 win and the series.

Maley had announced his intention to retire post-playoffs and the Sixers had almost overnight found the singleminded purpose missing so often through the regular season.

Wollongong squeezed past Perth 97-90 in overtime in their quarter-final series opener at the Sandpit and it was no surprise the Wildcats struck back in Game 2 in Perth 106-95. By halftime in Game 3, the finals-hardened Wildcats had a 10-point lead and with their wild sell-out crowd at full fervour, the Hawks’ season looked spent.

Having analysed the video of their Game 2 loss, Joyce had concluded the game plan had been sound but his team’s commitment to it and execution of it flawed. It had been a huge gamble to go with the same strategy again in Game 3 and now at halftime and 10 points in arrears, it looked as if it had backfired.

“I knew it was dangerous because there’d be a lack of belief,” he said. “You could hear a pin drop when I walked into the room at halftime. Their heads were down and they were all feeling pretty sorry for themselves.”

Joyce then rolled the dice once more with an even bigger gamble. He chose to evoke the memory of Hawks’ team manager David Leske who had died in February after a prolonged bout with cancer.

Leske, 49, was a Vietnam veteran who had served two stints in the war zone and had been in his second season as Wollongong manager when the illness finally beat him. Ironically, he had passed away shortly after Wollongong had beaten Perth in Perth 106-104 late in the regular season. It was a game he had discussed with Joyce, the Hawks’ coach convinced the road to a championship would lead through the reigning champion Wildcats.

“We could see he was going through a lot of pain,” Joyce said of his manager’s brave fight against his gradual decline. “When he actually passed away, it was still a shock. He said to me that if I ever needed to, I could utilise him to motivate the team.”

That time had arrived.

Joyce broke into an impassioned plea for his charges to find the resolve necessary to come back and beat Perth. His opening of: “I wonder what David would do in this situation?” caught everyone’s attention. Their heads were up. Joyce spoke of Leske’s fight to stay alive, touching on his daily battle, the pain and adversity. When compared to finding some inner strength to beat the odds on a basketball floor, it put the game – and the Hawks’ job – into perspective.

“Are you in, or are you out?” was Joyce’s question to his men. Each one answered in the affirmative. They weren’t feeling overwhelmed or sorry for themselves any longer and the Wildcats watched in dismay as their 10-point lead steadily dissolved into a 10-point loss, Saville leading the way with 26 points in the 98-88 success.

The series secured, the Hawks had two days to wrap their minds and bodies around the prospect of coming into Adelaide for Game 1 of the semi-final series.

Good old Adelaide, where they had not won since 1990 and even then only on a last shot.

Adelaide, where they had never beaten the Sixers at the Clipsal Powerhouse. The only place left in the NBL where the Hawks had never flown to a victory, their 2-1 season-series success coming off two wins in Wollongong, one loss in Adelaide. As usual.

Of course, there were two other factors to consider going into Game 1 of the semi-final.

The first was Wollongong’s only game in Adelaide during the regular season was lost in overtime when it could so easily have been secured in regulation. The second was the dramatic come-from-a-hopeless-position manner in which the Hawks had clinched their season-series with the 36ers.

That, added to the comeback success in Perth, had to make Wollongong’s men feel just a bit more confident about clearing the only hurdle they had yet to leap in their memorable season.

Adelaide, on the other hand, had come from a 0-1 deficit to upstage annual finals falterer Victoria and did it in style, suddenly raising expectations it could become the first outfit in NBL history to make it all the way to the grand final series from sixth. All it had to do was hold serve at home and break it at the ’pit.

“Everybody is excited,” Joyce said on the eve of the semi series opener. “We’re coming in as winners. To beat Perth on their own floor, there’s a quiet confidence growing. Obviously we’re pretty excited at the prospect of winning the club’s first championship.”

By tip-off time, the 8000-strong full house at the Clipsal Powerhouse was in full voice, the atmosphere charged and the 36ers anxious to seize early control to force Wollongong into a tiring night of catch-up.

The theory, and it was a good one, was to test the Hawks early, given the energy reserves they would have needed in their desperate fightback in Perth probably would be depleted. Jump ’em, pump ’em early, sit back and enjoy the easier ride to victory.

Wollongong’s first play saw it cop a three-second violation. Adelaide’s next saw Brett Maher pop a 3-point salutation. Some terrific play by Mat Campbell had scores tied at 11-11 and Axel Dench’s offensive rebound gave the Hawks the lead at 13-11. It was wedged again at 17-17 when Matt Garrison drove to the hoop.

With 2:22 left in the first, Mark Nash gave Adelaide the lead from the stripe. Then David Stiff’s offensive rebound released Maher for a jumper. The 36ers captain followed that with a 3-pointer in transition off a Hawks’ turnover. Suddenly, it was 24-17 and Joyce was calling time-out, 83 seconds from the first break.

It did not halt the run. Kevin Brooks nailed a jumpshot, Glen Saville clanged two free throws and Brooks added two freebies for 28-17 and an 11-0 Sixers’ run. Saville had time to complete an offensive board for a 28-19 scoreline at the end of the first quarter, Darnell Mee with nine points and Maher with eight.

The 36ers had the break they wanted and Wollongong was now supposed to make a run, falter, watch the score blow back out and wither away.

These Hawks, however, were not about to follow that script, having shown they were masters of the ad lib. And masters of their own fate. Adelaide may have hustled on 11 points in less than two minutes but Wollongong was prepared to plug away.

Melvin Thomas elevated his game but it was still a nine-point deficit when Stiff stole the ball, gave it to Mee who onpassed to Maher for Nash on the run for a dunk. A jumpshot by Melvin and a triple from Charles Thomas in transition had it back to 32-36 inside a minute of Nash’s inspirational finish. Mee grabbed a defensive board and went coast-to-coast for a finger-roll that again had the crowd jumping.

But Wollongong stayed unmoved, Saville stringing together five points to tie the game at 42-42.

Maher made a triple to create some breathing space but it was a short breath, Damon Lowery driving and sticking a jumpshot.

Mark Davis missed two free throws and Lowery was loose again for another drive and mid-range jumper, Wollongong ahead 46-45. The Hawks then twice muscled the lead out to four points before Brooks hit a 3-pointer inside the final six seconds to cut Wollongong’s halftime lead to 52-51.

Say what? How had that happened when Adelaide’s Plan A had worked so well in the first term?

Saville’s 14 points at halftime may have had something to do with it, Wollongong’s growing belief in its own “destiny” also a serious factor.

The lead changed 11 times during the third quarter before Brooks again closed it with a triple to give Adelaide a 64-63 edge with 12 minutes left of Game 1.

There were no doubting Thomases when Melvin scored off the glass to open the final quarter or when Charles scored a looper to regain the lead after Maher split those buckets with a drive-and-jumpshot.

Brooks’ turnover meant Charles Thomas’ next basket pushed Wollongong’s lead out to 69-66. His open 3-pointer 90 seconds later made it 74-70, his next triple 90-odd seconds after that making it 77-71 and the Hawks were rocking.

Long bombs by Maher and Mee had the game back on the precipice, Wollongong ahead 78-77 with 2:45 left. Lowery bumped the cushion back out to three where it still hovered until Paul Maley nailed two free throws with 93 seconds left in the contest.

Adelaide now had Brooks, with his wide wing-span, trying to contain Lowery as Dench missed and Maley snaffled the rebound. Maher’s 3-pointer for the lead caught iron and Stiff’s attempt to rebound only saw him foul Charles Thomas.

Same stadium, similar scenario, Charles Thomas walking to the free throw line with 47.7 seconds left, his team clinging to an 82-81 lead. Anyone with any memory of what had gone before knew this – far more than the late free throws to sink the Sixers in Wollongong – was the moment for a champion to show his mettle.

Thomas did just that, dropping in both free shots for the 84-81 lead.

“It was a chance for retribution and I went there confident like I did before,” he said in the post-game wash-up. “But this time I was a little more focused.”

The 36ers raced the ball forward and Stiff swung into his unorthodox step around for a quick basket, the lead sliced back to 83-84 with just a tad over 37 seconds remaining.

Playing defence as if their lives depended on it, the Sixers smothered Wollongong’s last attack, creating one of the few 24-second shotclock violations of the series. With 13.5 seconds left, Adelaide had the ball back to fashion one last play for victory.

Mee worked the ball forward, Charles Thomas wearing him like jockstrap to prevent something inspired. Mee managed it anyway, getting into the key for a last shot on which Thomas played extremely aggressive defence.

Post-game, Thomas timidly suggested he might have fouled the 36ers’ playmaker on the shot.

“I probably got him a little bit,” the classy Hawks’ star admitted.

Nothing was called and in truth, that one was probably too close to call anyway. But Stiff collared the rebound and as he endeavoured to go back up with a match-winning shot, a clearly desperate Melvin Thomas lunged and grabbed the Sixer power forward’s arm, wrenching it to force the miss.

There was no whistle although referee Mal Cooper had a clear and unobstructed view of the play.

Wollongong was the better side on the night and won. It had stolen Game 1 in Adelaide and had the prospect of two chances at home to put away the series. There was no reason to doubt it could. It had outplayed the 36ers, held them to 35 per cent floor accuracy and to 28 per cent (7-of-25) from outside the 3-point arc. The Hawks narrowly had won the boards, which compensated their 22-12 turnover disparity.

NBL operations manager and referees commissioner Gary Fox publicly agreed Cooper had erred in not calling the late foul on Melvin Thomas. “He said he didn’t see it,” Fox explained. “He should have seen it. It was a foul and it should have been called.”

Stiff, a career 56 per cent free throw shooter who was averaging 60 per cent in 2001, would never have been a certainty to nail both. But the fact he was denied the opportunity left a sour taste for the Sixers. For the Hawks though, all it meant was the belief this was their “season of destiny” had only further been reinforced. This was a team that would take a power of beating to force a Game 3 series decider.

Adelaide had two days to turn it around before tip-off for Game 2 at the Sandpit in Wollongong. It hardly looked positive.

The 36ers had not won in Wollongong all season but the consolation was that before Game 1, the Hawks had not won in Adelaide all season either. Having finally beaten the Adelaide hoodoo though, Wollongong had become only the third team in NBL history to win in every venue in the same season.

Until the final siren on Game 1, only the 36ers’ 1986 championship outfit and South East Melbourne’s 1998 runner-up could make the same claim.

“We knew what to expect,” 36ers coach Phil Smyth said, but when the Hawks opened with a 6-0 start and raced on to 10-2, the sell-out crowd at the Sandpit was in raucous rapture. It was 7:59 to go in the quarter when Paul Maley hit the 36ers’ first field goal and slowly Adelaide began to stir, the Hawks’ early momentum settling. A 3-pointer from Maher tied it at 18-18 but triples to Dench and Lowery thrust the term back Wollongong’s way.

Mee split the defence to score and added a bonus and when Maher located Nash for a 3-pointer, Adelaide had closed it back to 24-24 at the first break. A Rees lay-up to start the second quarter gave the 36ers the lead and Maley’s three had the edge out to 34-29 before Charles Thomas and Dench asserted themselves. In the ensuing 12-2 run, both were significant but Mat Campbell, Damon Lowery and Grant Kruger all played their parts.

Lowery’s 3-pointer with 23 seconds to halftime gave the Hawks a 56-49 lead and when Charles Thomas rejected Kevin Brooks’ shot with 0.3 of a second, Wollongong was playing the better basketball. Dench had 17 points including 3-of-3 triples, the Hawks owning a massive 30-12 rebounding edge. Glen Saville was a rebounding fool and would finish with 15.

Saville, Campbell, Dench and Melvin Thomas continued to weather the best Adelaide could muster, the Hawks ahead 71-68 midway through the third. Then Dench ignited another mini-run, turning a Brooks turnover into a break and when Charles Thomas hit a free throw inside the last two minutes, the Hawks were out 80-70.

A three-point play from Brooks and two free throws by Mee kept the Sixers in range, down 75-82 with a quarter to play. And just as Charles Thomas had rejected a shot by Brooks to close the second, Mee gave his team a lift when he swatted away Melvin Thomas’ final shot attempt.

Saville opened the final term taking a Brooks charge but a David Stiff jumpshot still cut the deficit back to five. Stiff and Melvin Thomas were called for an absurd double-foul – sometimes boys just need to be left alone to sort themselves out – and this particular call seemed to signal the end for Adelaide.

It was Stiff’s fifth foul, Thomas’ shots took the score back out to 84-77 and Wollongong could taste its historic first grand final berth. Oops. Apocalypse.

Instead of crawling into a shell, Stiff connected on a jumpshot, then fed Brooks for a 3-pointer. A minute later, Nash fed Brooks for another triple and soon it was raining threes. After Brooks’ pair, Mee hit a stepback three, then another off a Maher feed for 91-91.

When Maher took a charge from Campbell, Joyce had seen enough and called time-out. Sometimes they can break a team’s momentum. Sometimes they do not. This one made no difference.

Mee hit his third triple in succession and Adelaide’s fifth in a row for a 94-91 lead. Then Brooks stroked a long bomb for 97-91. Nash then got into the act and nailed one himself for 100-91 and Adelaide had hit seven 3-pointers in succession!

Paul Rees broke the run with a free throw but Brooks added another for 104-96 and the Sandpit was in shock. Stiff’s dunk gave Adelaide a 10-point lead, Wollongong having stopped to a walk. The 36ers led by as many as 13 before Melvin Thomas scored with 19 seconds left, Adelaide having forced a Game 3 decider with a 111-100 upset.

The 3-point barrage was unlike anything the Hawks had seen previously, although Victoria Titans and their South East Melbourne forerunner had experienced similar Adelaide arc-avalanches in the past. The Sixers hit 8-of-12 threes in the final term, a 36-18 quarter that defied logic.

Having watched his team capture the goose that laid the golden eggs, Joyce was understandably dismayed when they turned it into goose cutlets.

“They were making comments like: ‘Twelve more minutes and we’re there.’ Maybe they were thinking too far ahead but fortunately we’ve got another opportunity,” Joyce said. “It’s a lesson for the guys. It’s a 48-minute game.”

Less than 48 hours later, on a memorable Easter Sunday afternoon, someone would be creating history. There was, however, one other back story to factor into the mix.

Victorian referee Eddie Crouch had been with the NBL since its inaugural 1979 tip-off. In 1980, the league awarded its first Referee of the Year accolade, Crouch the original recipient. He won again in 1981. And 1982, 1983, 1984. At the time, he unquestionably was Australia’s leading basketball umpire.

In 1985, Ray Hunt broke Crouch’s stranglehold, though the pair shared the award in 1987, Crouch continuing to share the award for the next five years with Bill Mildenhall. In 1993-94, he again was amid the award-winning pool. It was an extraordinary personal record rivalling the achievement of Australia’s decorated soccer referee Donald Campbell.

A staunch Victorian, Crouch drew more 36ers games in Adelaide than most of his interstate contemporaries, largely because he had a holiday home on Kangaroo Island in SA. Put it this way. He was happy to be calling games at the Clipsal Powerhouse, yet seeing him more frequently than an Ian Watts, Mal Cooper or Scott Butler, did not greatly endear him to the locals. The relationship between Crouch and the 36ers was one in steady decline, though he could not recognise it.

Back on March 10, Adelaide suffered a 35-point humiliation at the Wildcats’ hands in Perth. Crouch was calling the game. From the opening tip, Perth went forward and he immediately whistled David Stiff for a foul trying to deflect a pass to Paul Rogers. Few would dispute the call was extremely soft and/or unnecessary. Rightly or wrongly, his officiating in that game stung the Sixers as badly as the result.

A relationship that was cool became decidedly frosty, the 36ers contemplating the unheard of response of having the coaching staff and each player sign a document expressing their concerns and submitting it to the NBL. These were the thoughts of frustrated men.

It’s a long flight back to Adelaide and within a few days, the focus was back on the next opponent. Nonetheless, a month later when Crouch walked out onto the Sandpit hardwood alongside Mildenhall and Watts to call Game 3 of the semi-final, the 36ers and their supporters were visibly deflated.

Let’s just put it this way. Over time, Crouch’s respect-base with the Sixers had seriously eroded. In his defence, the 36ers also were now of an over-reactive mindset that any call on a borderline decision that went against them was surely agenda-driven.

With Game 3 coming so soon on the back of Good Friday’s Game 2 – and on Easter Sunday - the Wollongong Entertainment Centre was not sold out for this definitive lesson in controversy.

“It wasn’t a sell-out, but it was probably one of the loudest crowds we ever had,” the Hawks’ general manager at the time, Chuck Harmison, said. They had plenty to cheer as Melvin Thomas and Charles Thomas gave Wollongong the initial lead, 4-0.

That moved out to 8-3 on buckets by Campbell and Saville before Brooks, Maher and Maley surged the Sixers ahead 13-12. A 3-pointer from Mark Nash bumped the 36ers out 20-15 before Lowery hit a triple one minute after entering the game, igniting a 9-0 run.

Nash and Maley wrestled it back to 24-24 before Melvin Thomas hit two baskets for 28-24. Nash beat the buzzer to close the quarter with nine points, Wollongong ahead 28-26. If there had been a more tense and enthralling first quarter that year, you would have been hard-pressed to find it.

Paul Maley’s turnaround jumpshot got the second quarter started but two baskets by Melvin, split by a Matt Garrison jumper had the home side out to 34-28. As Adelaide’s offence spluttered, Garrison delivered six consecutive points for the Hawks – four of them from the stripe – and Wollongong was en route to a 44-34 buffer with a Lowery lay-up. The Sixers’ defence needed to step up and did, Wollongong needing threes by Campbell and Lowery to offset a pair of bombs by Maher and some super skills in traffic by Mee.

With 2:13 to halftime, Nash, often criticised for a deferential and occasionally passive offensive demeanour, faked a 3-point attempt from the wing in front of the Sixers’ bench. Instead he drove hard through traffic to the hoop and slammed down a huge dunk which had heads spinning. That cut the lead to 48-52 and the Sixers were inspired.

Mee threw down a two-handed slam dunk in a congested keyway and when Rupert Sapwell banked a three, one minute had passed since Nash’s drive and Adelaide was ahead 53-52.

Charles Thomas stole the ball from Mee, Sapwell stole the ball from Charles as the intensity level seared off the Richter scale. Saville’s triple made it 55-53 to the Hawks but Mee had enough time to fashion a one-on-one move and jumpshot to have scores locked away 55-55 on the halftime buzzer. Believe me, fans, spectators, sponsors, media – you name it – we needed the break as much as the players. That had been some half of playoff basketball.

Adelaide’s first 90 seconds after the interval were priceless. Brooks scored in the lane, Maley iced a three and Maher deflected a ball to Mee who fed it back to Maher for a lay-up and bonus free throw. Maher missed the extra but Wollongong was in a time-out huddle down 55-62 with 10:41 showing on the clock.

Maher’s drive-and-dish to Maley made it 64-55 before Melvin Thomas – who was playing a blinder – scored and Mat Campbell hit a sweet triple in transition.

Campbell’s three set off another long-range avalanche, Maher hitting a 3-pointer for the 36ers, Melvin matching it with one of his own. Mee then created one for Brooks but Lowery’s was just as big.

Five in a row had the crowd roaring before Nash and Melvin Thomas created in the keyway. Adelaide was back to an eight-point edge on Maley’s free throws at 76-68 with 2:55 left but Melvin kept plugging away.

Maley scored the Sixers’ last six points of the quarter, including a sweet drive and reverse but Saville’s slammer closed the scoring, Wollongong down 76-80 but in better shape than it might have been. Some lessons clearly had been learnt on Friday.

The last quarter was one for the vault. Scores were level five times, the lead changed hands seven times and the biggest buffer either side enjoyed was four points. That’s the lead the Sixers started with, the crowd up and clapping as Campbell and Melvin Thomas erased it. Stiff took the spotlight with consecutive baskets before he grabbed an offensive rebound which Maley completed for an 86-82 lead.
Campbell and Charles Thomas then made a pair of 3-pointers and there was a whirlwind of noise in the Sandpit as Wollongong was back in front 88-86.

It was shortlived, Maher hitting a three for 89-88. Garrison’s jumpshot made it 90-89, Mee restored it to 91-90 and Garrison to 92-91. It was one huge play after another, Sapwell’s chance to give Adelaide back the lead falling short when he missed a free throw, Melvin Thomas batting away his second freebie as it bounced on the ring. Lowery on the break made it 94-91. Brooks’ three tied it again at 94-94.

This was heart-in-the-mouth stuff, Campbell sticking a 3-point dagger, Nash extracting it with a three of his own, 97-97. Dench, then Nash made it 99-99 before Melvin converted for 101-99 and Lowery iced two free throws for a 103-99 Wollongong edge with 3:55 left.

Fouled by Melvin on a 3-point attempt, Brooks put away two of the three penalties as the tension built to unbearable levels.

Another minute of drama – defensive rebounds by Stiff and Melvin Thomas, a Hawks’ 24-second shotclock violation, a missed triple by Charles Thomas – was broken at 2:40 when Brooks hit a 3-pointer, Adelaide ahead again 104-103. Wollongong took time-out and 15 seconds later, Melvin tied the score at 104 apiece when he hit 1-of-2 free throws. Fouled on a drive by Saville, Brooks put away both penalties for a 106-104 lead, just 2:02 left.

After a Dench miss and Maher defensive board, Wollongong somehow elevated its defensive play, Saville harassing Mee into calling a time-out to avoid a turnover, 1:26 left in the game, seven seconds on the Sixers’ shotclock. Back on the court, Mee drove and drew a defensive foul on Charles Thomas, 1:22 left and a chance for a four-point lead. But Mee’s first free throw clanged off the iron, his second good for a 107-104 buffer.

The Hawks wasted no time isolating Saville who scored in the keyway off a lob pass for 106-107, still 1:12 to play. Now it was Brooks’ turn to drive and draw a foul. These were big shots with the game-clock at 54.2 seconds, the former Denver Nuggets NBA forward with a chance to create a three-point cushion.

Pressure and fatigue are a strange and wondrous combination. Brooks’ first shot was a carbon of Mee’s first free throw 28 seconds earlier. His second was good, giving Adelaide a 108-106 lead.

Wollongong’s next play was going to be decisive. Lowery brought the ball forward, gave it off to Dench near the top of the key and skirted to the wing. Dench passed it back to him and Lowery endeavoured to explore any opening against Brooks’ wide wingspan defence. There wasn’t one.

He retreated back out to give the ball over to Charles Thomas, precious seconds ticking off the clock. Thomas put ball to floor, driving into the key against Maher before being surrounded by defenders.

His dish to the wide open Dench on the wing gave Wollongong a shot to tie the game. But Dench’s jumpshot with 33 seconds left caught the back of the ring and bounced to the other side, the ball spilling loose to Maher as Saville tried to claim the rebound over the top of Mee. Maher immediately broke forward, Brooks running a lane beside him and Nash open further to the right.

Lowery and Charles Thomas were retreating back quickly, hedging toward Maher but well aware Brooks had made it to the left-hand corner.

Maher pulled up near one of his favourite spots on the left of the arc as Nash waved frantically to signal he was open under the hoop. Maher was airborne but sensed Saville flying at him from the right to block the shot and managed to alter his shot into a pass to Brooks in the corner, Dench now back to cover Nash, an opportunity lost.

Brooks passed it back to Maher who dribbled high as the rest of the cavalry arrived, eventually handing it off to Nash, who had veered out to the top of the key region. Nash returned the ball to Maher who set up wide near the centre-line on the right-hand side of the court.

The Sixers’ captain kept the ball alive as he allowed time to tick away before moving into his drive against Saville. By the time he reached the foul-line, Maher had picked half a step up on the Hawks’ defender, Dench sagging into the key to lend assistance. That left Stiff open but Maher was fully committed now to his drive, crashing between bodies and tumbling to the floor over the baseline as his shot bounced on the ring.

A flying Stiff was too late to be able to claim the ball as it bounced a second time to Charles Thomas who cradled it like a newborn, the 36ers retreating and Maher straight back on his feet and tearing ahead of Saville.

Brooks pressured Thomas on his release but he got it to Saville, Maher waiting for him. Sav drove, made contact with Maher who fell to the floor, playing for the charging foul. The nearest official, perhaps ironically Eddie Crouch, simply waved the play forward and the ball left Saville’s hands bound for Lowery’s, 1.7 seconds left.

Lowery caught the ball outside the arc in front of the press table and the 36ers bench, maybe two metres directly in front of where I was sitting. Mee was coming at him like a man possessed and in that split second frozen in time, I had no doubt Mee was going to make it near-impossible for Lowery to get off anything resembling a good shot.

Mee blocked the ball cleanly – you only had to see its trajectory to know that. But on his follow-through, there was contact.

Crouch had no hesitation in calling the foul. This one wouldn’t be waved on.

Lowery later would liken the contact to something akin to being mugged, claiming he couldn’t feel the right side of his body. Mee would say he had made no contact but that Lowery had caught his hand on his block follow-through and dragged the Sixers’ premier defender to him. I might have found that description harder to accept had I not seen Andrew Gaze pull a similar ploy in a pre-Sydney Olympic Games “friendly” against the USA eight months earlier.

Gaze had shot a 3-pointer and Vince Carter had leapt at him to block it. Suddenly on the follow-through, Gaze was on the floor and Carter on top of him! It led to a small melee and was the most talked-about incident in the post-game wash-up. Most in the media were prepared to hang, draw and quarter Carter for so brutally interfering with our Aussie icon. But Gaze, the Boomers and Australian Olympic team captain and flag-bearer, rather sheepishly but somewhat courageously told the media conference he had made the incident look much worse than it was by dragging Carter onto him!

Say what? Our Drewie? Saint Andrew? In a million years, you would not have guessed that when you saw the split-second incident with the naked eye, trained or untrained. That admission by Gaze, anxious not to be responsible for the Americans being perceived as villains – they were able to manage that all by themselves at the Games anyway – just reinforced that at elite professional level, you have to be naïve to believe everything you see.

Unquestionably, Lowery played the contact for all it was worth, even impartial television commentators as diverse as Steve Carfino, Gaze and Derek Rucker commenting on the extra theatrics the little guy had added, kicking his legs out wide to exaggerate the impact. The video replays showed the ball left Lowery’s hand at a shade under 0.5 of a second. It was pandemonium at the Sandpit. Lowery was going to be given three free throws.

Mee stalked away from the incident, fuming at the call. Smyth was up calling it “a disgrace” and Wollongong was in uproar. The Hawks called time-out which referee Bill Mildenhall signalled, allowing the request.

“It looked like Lowery did a good job of throwing his legs and arms everywhere just in case Darnell blocked the shot, he might be able to draw a foul,” Rucker told pay television subscribers across Australia.

The jolts did not stop there for the Sixers. As the time-out was called in, Smyth was informed game-time had elapsed and his players could not line up around the keyway for Lowery’s shots.

This undoubtedly made for an even more dramatic finish as the little man would be at the stripe alone, the eyes of the NBL world upon him. Of course, in the cool light of day, it was an officiating error.

There had to be time left on the clock – even tenths of a second count – otherwise Wollongong should not have been awarded a time-out. After all, you don’t get a time-out when a game is over. And a game is over if there is no time left on the clock, right?

By allowing the time-out, the officials were saying there had to be tenths of a second left. That logically meant the players could line up around the key. Now if you’re wondering why that would matter, it’s twofold.

One, the presence of the other players might affect the shooter’s approach but way more importantly, on a bouncing free throw – as Lowery’s turned out to be – a player can leap up and tip the ball away. Melvin Thomas had done that very thing to Sapwell’s free throw with 6:46 left in the game.

David Stiff, Kevin Brooks, Mark Nash … these were all 36ers capable of replicating Melvin’s feat.

The Sixers, however, were not allowed to line up.

Lowery’s first free throw hit the front of the rim, bounced once and fell in, 107-108 Wollongong.

His second bounced on the front, off the back and then rolled around before falling in, 108-108.

The third one bobbled and bounced eight times on the ring before making up its mind to deliver Wollongong the game 109-108, the Sandpit erupting in a euphoric symphony of joy, relief and excitement. The Hawks had won and were heading into their historic first grand final series. The 36ers were heading for the showers.

“We have not heard the end of this one. This one’s going to be talked about for a long, long time,” Gaze accurately predicted amid scenes of jubilation, Wollongong becoming the first team from New South Wales to reach the championship series. Joyce was seeking out his wife in the stands, Lowery had collapsed at the foul-line and was being dragged to his feet by elated teammates and mascot, fans were dancing in the aisles.

This was a finish no-one would soon forget. While the thumping bass-line of Queen’s anthemic “Another One Bites the Dust” was belting across the Sandpit, the print media contingent steadily filed into the room in the bowels of the stadium for the press conference. I passed the 36ers’ changeroom en route and came across Smyth, white with a rage I had never before seen. Let’s say his brief, personal assessment of the call, not surprisingly, was hardly glowing.

Waiting for the press conference to begin, Andrew Gaze sauntered over to me, put his hand on my shoulder and leaned in close. “Your boys got screwed,” he quietly informed me, though my dimming recollection remains that “screwed” is not quite the word he used.

“The club will pursue two incidents now that have happened in the playoffs through the proper channels and we would expect that we would get an interesting answer from that,” Smyth told the hushed media room. “Twice in a three-game series is just a little bit hard to deal with so we’ll just see what the response is.”

In the end though, Adelaide did not pursue the incident with the NBL or referees commissioner Gary Fox. There was nothing to be gained.

However they could have asked many questions of those fateful final seconds, the questions many still ask today.

1) Did Saville foul Maher when he drove to the basket on the game’s penultimate play?

2) When Saville drove the ball out of the backcourt and contacted Maher in mid-court, why was nothing called? A charging foul on Sav gives the ball back to Adelaide. A blocking foul on Maher gives Saville two free throws – not three.

3) If Mee fouled Lowery after the shot – the ball already was blocked cleanly away – should he have been given two free throws as Wollongong was in the bonus, as opposed to three?

4) If Wollongong was allowed a time-out, there had to be time left on the clock. Why weren’t the 36ers allowed to line up around the keyway?

5) Did Lowery break the line on his decisive third shot? All focus was on the ball, not on his feet.

If the Sixers were not going to follow up, I still felt it was worth asking Gary Fox those questions anyway. When you take the emotion out of it, questions one, two, three and five don’t much matter and always will be a matter of opinion – divided opinion.

Question four though, remains unanswered to this day.

Having publicly criticised Mal Cooper for missing the foul against Melvin Thomas when he grabbed David Stiff’s arm at the end of Game 1, it was unlikely Fox would again openly challenge his officials’ ruling. Not that Gary would have thought of this, but to support the 36ers twice would have opened both conspiracy theories while leaving huge question-marks over the competency of his officiating team. (And in the man in charge of them.)

Instead, Fox insisted Crouch had made a “gutsy and courageous call”.

“And more importantly, it was correct,” he said. “The hand’s not a part of the ball anymore. Eddie’s call on Darnell was correct. If it happened to Kevin Brooks or Brett Maher or Darnell Mee, Adelaide would have been adamant it was a foul. It was a gutsy and courageous call by an experienced official and it was right. He deserves praise for having the courage to make the call.”

Most of us grew up on “the hand is a part of the ball” so that was certainly news at the time. As for “gutsy and courageous”, making that call in front of four-and-a-half thousand people baying for it … well, not calling it might have required more intestinal fortitude.

Fox said the circumstances at the game’s climax had made it nearly impossible in the reaction time available, to stop the clock. “Even probably the best score-table official in the country could not have stopped the clock with the 0.3 of a second remaining,” he said.

Was it a foul even? When it happened in front of my eyes, I didn’t think so. The more I’ve watched it, the more I wonder. The officials had a split second. There was more than a hint of irony in the fact Darnell Mee was named the NBL’s best defensive player – for the third time - a week after he was called for a foul on the season’s biggest defensive play.

“I shouldn’t have put us in that situation,” Mee said of the foul call.

“I blocked the shot and hit his hand on the follow through. He grabbed my arm and dragged me down. I can’t say that that wouldn’t happen again in a similar situation. I wouldn’t let him take that shot again. I’m not one to leave it to fate if I can do something about it. As for what advice I’d give aspiring young defensive players? Take Damon Lowery’s School of Acting Class because new-age basketball is full of floppers.”

Lowery, exuberant and enthusiastic as ever, had a different take on it when he hit the press conference.

“I thought ‘three-for-a-dollar’ – make these three and we’re in the grand final. I don’t feel pressure – up until today. I was scared as hell today. I’ve never felt this anxious before. Once I went to the line, I thought these are the situations everybody wants to be in.”

Ah, but should he ever have gotten to the line? Was it really a foul or had Lowery done the same thing Gaze had against Vince Carter?

“I was karate-chopped. If that happens out on the street, the cops are coming to do something,” he quipped, tongue firmly in cheek. “I was just minding my own business at the 3-point line, ready to heave up some 50-footer or whatever it was and out of nowhere, just crack! I’m glad there was a time-out called because I couldn’t feel the right side of my body.

“I was definitely hacked. I’m normally one who says let the players decide it but you can’t condone that type of behaviour.”

And so it concluded. The greatest single game, in the greatest single series, in the greatest post-season the NBL had ever staged, finishing in a controversy that finally gave the league “that one moment” it had never previously experienced.

Melvin Thomas, with 28 points and 11 rebounds, was a sensation. The Hawks just about had to call in an exorcist to get him through the winter; the man had spent the post-season possessed.

Mat Campbell had a terrific game, Saville, Dench, Matt Garrison and Charles Thomas all key contributors.

The game may well have been immortalised by Lowery’s free throws but to some extent, those and their circumstances overshadowed what, quite simply, was just a magnificent display of how best to play this captivating sport.

Brooks’ 26 points led Adelaide, Paul Maley’s farewell to the NBL spotlight a 21-point game, Mark Nash the quiet achiever with 20 points, Maher, Mee and Stiff making big plays all afternoon.

Wollongong went on to beat Townsville for the NBL championship in another torrid three-game series that went the distance, marking the historic first time two regional teams fought out the championship. It also concluded the first playoffs in NBL history where every series went to three games.

For the Hawks to come out on top at the other end of all that was testimony to their belief in their own destiny.

In 2002, the Hawks gave up Matt Garrison to a ridiculously lucrative deal from Cairns Taipans but added 7-footer Ben Pepper to their title defence team.

Despite a commitment for three more seasons with the 36ers, Darnell Mee left Adelaide for a European offer, his last image as a Sixer probably not the one he would want remembered.

Maley retired, Mark Davis was released and not picked up by any other club and Brooks signed for another season but had his contract terminated.

Early in the season, Crouch called a Sixers game in Adelaide and Smyth was cited by Fox when he said in an article I wrote for The Advertiser that the club had a problem with the veteran Victorian official.

The citing was pretty much dismissed and Crouch – who preferred to live in denial about claims of a rift with the 36ers - did not call another Adelaide game in 2002.

Garrison was cut one-third of the way through the season by the Taipans and picked up by Adelaide.

While Wollongong soared to the top of the tree in 2001, that following season a much younger and less experienced 36ers team swept the Hawks 3-0 during the regular season before, again ironically, playing them in the 2002 quarter-finals. That too was a 2-0 Sixers sweep, Adelaide continuing on to win the club’s record fourth championship.

Garrison cornered his own piece of history as the first man to play in consecutive championships with different clubs.

On Easter Sunday though, April 16, 2001, Wollongong and Adelaide carved their own footnote in NBL history with a call that will live on as a league legend.

Then again of course, there was that travel in the second quarter that was missed. The foul in the third that was overlooked, a palming the ball violation ignored …

PS
There is, of course, a further post-script but not the one I expected to be writing.

In November, 2002, the Cairns Taipans signed Darnell Mee to play out the season after cutting Ron Kelley. As fate would have it, Mee arrived in Australia just as Cairns was drawn to play Adelaide in Adelaide.

I caught up with him in a city motel wondering – like 36ers’ supporters – why he would sign with Cairns and not return to the city where he had won two championships and was adored as the club’s finest import.

I was waiting for him in the lobby when he strode out of the lift for our meeting, a huge grin warming his face as he stretched his hand in greeting. I think he was happy to see a familiar face, this unique athlete who preferred to wear his poker face almost perpetually.

Mee does a great job of keeping his terrific personality to his close friends and teammates, presenting the public with the countenance of the consummate professional.

When he was cracking up as our photographer took some set-up shots of him, he was imploring me to “burn those negs”. No way the world should see any Darnell Mee “out-takes” that showed him to be human. But the jig was up with the interview he gave me, the most candid and surprising since I had the pleasure of knowing him or covering his on-court exploits. And he had never been anything but open and frank.

“I never turned my back on the 36ers,” was how he opened the conversation, annoyed a newspaper report had suggested as much when he left to play in Germany before the 2002-03 season.

“It just worked out like that. At the time, I thought I was leaving for a better opportunity in Europe. But looking at it objectively, I’d had other opportunities to leave and hadn’t taken them. The truth was, leaving had more to do with the way that season ended.

“It was so hard thinking Mark (Davis) and Paul (Maley) had ended their careers with a game like that. It was tough. In the change-rooms afterwards, it was just quiet for 20-25 minutes. I had a lot of pent-up anger. It wouldn’t have been a positive situation for me to stay. I would have been okay with my teammates but I’d have been on the refs, opponents … there would have been a lot of bitterness and anger.”

Mee followed Adelaide’s 2002 success via the Internet but his own thoughts of the NBL lingered on the same thing.

“Whenever I think about playing in Australia, that’s the first thing I think about. It’s always like: ‘How did this happen’? I loved Adelaide and my family loved Adelaide.”

It took a long time for that wound to heal for Mee and I doubt he will ever appreciate or embrace his role in the NBL’s most controversial finish. And that’s completely understandable.

But for those who like more than one sting in the tail/tale, perhaps the ultimate irony of ironies occurred in the 2003 off-season. That was when Darnell Mee signed for two NBL seasons with the Hawks in Wollongong, playing alongside Lowery. Who would ever have thought?