1996 Sydney Kings stat attack: Heritage Round special

This Sunday will see Hoops Capital celebrate the NBL25's Heritage Round, during the clash between the Sydney Kings and Brisbane Bullets at Qudos Bank Arena.

With Brian Goorjian's squad wearing specially designed jerseys to honour the club's 1996 outfit, we decided to publish a special edition of Stat Attack, remembering that famous Harbour City side, who finished that campaign in fifth on the ladder with a 16-10 record, before being knocked out by Canberra in the quarter-finals.

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• The 1996 Kings squad ended up the highest-scoring team in franchise history, averaging 108.8ppg.
• They also set franchise records that still exist for regular season field goal percentage (51.6) and three-point percentage (41.2) - leading to that purple and gold side being remembered by many long-time Kings’ fans as one of, if not the most entertaining Sydney Kings teams ever.
• Midway through the season, the Kings led the NBL with an 11-3 record. They won their first eight home games and in one stretch won nine straight games overall, averaging 120.4 points per game over that span
• The Kings’ first import guard signing before Isaac Burton (who led the team in scoring in 1996 with 24.4 points per game) was a guy by the name of Tony Bennett, who had played with the Charlotte Hornets and ended up as a great college coach - coaching Aron Baynes at Washington State and ended up winning an NCAA national championship with the University of Virginia.
• Bennett played a couple of preseason games, including one in Terrigal, but he was then cut by the Kings before the regular season and went to New Zealand. He came back to Sydney years later as the coach of Washington State who played a pre-season game against the Kings at Hills.
• Isaac Burton became the first King to win NBL Defensive Player of the Year.
• On the coaching hire before Alan Black (who was the 1995 NBL Coach of the Year with Illawarra) was signed. Two of the contenders were the late Scotty Robertson, who was the assistant coach of the Phoenix Suns at the time, and John Calipari, who was coaching the University of Massachusetts but ended up that same year signing with the New Jersey Nets as their head coach instead of the Kings, believe it or not. He ended up winning an NCAA Championship with the University of Kentucky.

Tickets to Sunday's game, tipping off at 4.15pm, are still available here.