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"OUR values don't align anymore." With those five words, Adelaide's most famous #5, Brett Maher tonight on TV succinctly summed up why the 36ers' longest serving and most iconic player severed all ties with the NBL club in the immediate aftermath of its decision to sack Sixers favourite son Scott Ninnis as head coach.

Ninnis was axed 11 days into preseason after signing a contract in February to coach his beloved club for the next two seasons.

Maher 51, played his entire 17-year NBL career at the 36ers, finishing as the club's all-time leader in games played (525), points (8,941), field goals (3,140), field goal attempts (7,072), 3-pointers made (1,162), 3-point attempts (2,835), assists (2,267) and steals (703).

The Adelaide-born prodigy captained the team to championships in 1998, 1999 and 2002, twice winning the Larry Sengstock Medal as the championship series MVP. 

A triple-Olympian, he played more than 100 games for the Boomers, captaining the national team in 2001, the same year he won the international Gaze Medal.

A Basketball Australia, Basketball SA and now a club Hall of Famer, Maher's #5 uniform was one of the first retired by the 36ers which also named the home court at the Clipsal Powerhouse after him, the club's latest management transferring that on to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

He has worked for the club in various capacities, most recently employed by the 36ers to run holiday camps, coaching clinics and act as a Sixers ambassador on home game nights.

Having had the privilege and pleasure of authoring his biography "Mahervellous! The Brett Maher Story" - the record of his storied life as a South Australian sporting institution - it involved myriad interviews with family, colleagues, teammates, opponents and coaches. The biography was 100,000-plus words and there was not a single bad one uttered about Maher by anyone across the sport's entire landscape in it.

That in itself was an amazing accomplishment, to be so universally respected, regarded and loved as a player and a man of integrity, honesty and commitment.

So if, as he pointedly said of this club he has literally given his blood, sweat and tears for, their "values don't align anymore", that does leave a huge question mark over what this iteration of the Adelaide 36ers stand for.

The 36ers' latest GM of basketball, Matt "I Know Better" Weston, appointed to that role after Ninnis retained the job for two years on the strength of his season-saving interim performance across 2023-24, made that point enough times to leave little doubt he did not agree with the club's selection decision.

He knocked back Ninnis' preferred assistant nominee, another former 36ers star Graham Kubank, his #2 who was by his side, helping him right the sinking Sixers ship last season and giving long-suffering fans hope for what might yet be.

After a club plan to recruit Brendan Joyce as a lead assistant failed, the 36ers set out and secured Mike Wells, a career NBA assistant coach. 

Still hard to believe an assistant coach in the NBA would choose to come to a relative basketball backwater such as Adelaide on the promise of furthering his career ... as an NBL assistant coach?

OK, let's suspend disbelief. Wells rolled up his sleeves very quickly, ready to go to work and good luck to him. With Lamar Patterson on the horizon - Alex Starling checking his contract fine print - this is a reasonably decent roster on paper.

That is unless "inclement weather" unexpectedly rolls in. The flights to Tasmania must have been adjudged as not up to standard last week, although none were cancelled.

The NBL launched in 1979 and this is another "first" for the 36ers. Cancelling two preseason games due to "inclement weather" has never previously occurred in 45 years. Anywhere in the NBL. Guess it trumps potential "inclement results".

Former import Jacob Wiley recently left no doubt about his feelings regarding the club in a scathing Facebook post and club CEO Nic Barbato has spoken with a number of Sixers Hall of Famers, endeavouring to smooth the waters over Ninnis' dismissal.

In the meantime, life goes on, the 36ers preparing for a season where surely little short of the championship would suffice, and Maher and Ninnis expand their coaching services, adding yet a further high profile Sixers coaching sackee - former Boston Celtic Conner Henry - to their elite panel.