Adelaide

Adelaide had never lost an NBA team a game before. In 2022 the 36ers beat the Phoenix Suns 134–124, the only NBL club ever to get the better of an NBA side.

The club started out in 1982 as Adelaide City Eagles and lasted one season under that name before the board renamed it the 36ers, a nod to the 1836 proclamation of the Colony of South Australia.

Four championships followed, in 1986, 1998, 1999 and 2002. Between them, a run of retired numbers tells its own story: Davis at 33, Al Green at 15, Darryl Pearce at 4, and Brett Maher, the club's all-time leader in games and points, at 5 — a name the old home court in Gluyas Street eventually carried as well.

Grant Kelley chairs the club today, having sold a 19% stake to a consortium in 2023, with Bryce Cotton, the 2026 league MVP, now the player most likely to keep the 36ers in finals contention.