Five great games of the 1990s

By Matt McQuade

 

It’s a 1990’s themed week for the Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings.

Ah, the ’90s. What a decade for those of us who were alive to have experienced it.

The explosion of pop culture. Mobile phones becoming a thing. Classic television series. Buddy cop movies. All kinds of new music genres to get into. Revolutions in fashion. The list goes on.

And if you’re a sports nut like me, there were so many memorable moments.

Sydney winning the right to host the Olympic Games. The Awesome Foursome in Barcelona. Kieren Perkins stopping the nation in an unbelievable 1500m freestyle in the 1996 Atlanta Games. Australia winning the Rugby World Cup twice in the decade. Shane Warne and his ‘ball of the century’. A ton of others.

From a global basketball perspective, the decade started with the emergence of one Michael Jordan as perhaps the most famous athlete on the planet. Then there were MJ’s Chicago Bulls and their two threepeats. Of course, you had the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympic Games and what that meant to the sport. Shaquille O’Neal exploding on to the scene in 1992. The Houston Rockets and Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon.

Now we come to the city currently known as the ‘Hoops Capital’ in these parts.

In many ways, the 1990s was the most important period in the history of the Sydney Kings, and Sydney basketball in general. Sure, there were no championships for the purple and gold or even one Grand Final appearance in the decade. But this is when the club went from just some team that played a semi-obscure sport in the Harbour City to one of the most iconic franchises in all of Australian sport; a marketing juggernaut with few equals.

You had the move to the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1990 that changed everything. Nine consecutive 10,000-plus crowds in 1992. The nightly show that was Dwayne ‘D-Train’ McClain followed by Leon ‘Above the Rim’ Trimmingham. The 1996 offensive juggernaut featuring Shane ‘The Hammer’ Heal and Isaac ‘Ice’ Burton. The characters like ‘Tang’, ‘The Leaper’, ‘Man Mountain’, ‘The Voice’ and ‘Threeo Keogh’. The rookie season of the greatest Sydney Kings player ever – Matthew Nielsen.

At one stage in the ’90s, the team’s major sponsor was none other than Coca-Cola – the first time that global powerhouse had ever sponsored an individual sporting team anywhere in the world. Other corporate giants like Reebok, BP, Mazda and GIO, among many others, were also involved – the Kings had 130 companies as corporate partners at the beginning of the 1993 season.

In the 1990s, there’s no doubt that basketball became a cool thing in the decade across all walks of Sydney’s sporting life. NBL games at the dearly departed Kingdome in Darling Harbour were more than just your average night out; they each became a special event. The buzz around town was palpable when the Kings were playing at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

It was a period of time when the Sydney Kings rode the wave of the NBL ‘Boom’ and established the Kings’ brand as one of the most recognisable in the country.

Now, it wasn’t all wine and roses of course, and there’s no doubt there were plenty of ups and downs in that decade. Nevertheless, it was an amazing time in Sydney to be a basketball fan – to witness the end of the so-called ‘tin shed’ era and the beginning of the sport’s rise as a major force in Australia.

During the 1990s, the Kings played a total of 297 games, home and away. The first game of the decade was a 114-91 home loss to the Melbourne Tigers; the last a 123-97 blowout win over the West Sydney Razorbacks at the old Whitlam Centre in Liverpool.

In between, there were countless highlights, memorable battles and dramatic confrontations; selecting just five memorable Sydney Kings’ games of the 1990s for this piece has been a difficult task and I’ve no doubt there are a bunch of others that could just as easily be added to this list.

But that’s what I’m here for, so without further ado, let’s take a look at five unforgettable Sydney Kings games of the nineties in chronological order; starting with a game in 1990 that showed basketball was a minor sport no more.

 

Brisbane Bullets 100 def. Sydney Kings 95

Sydney Entertainment Centre, 25 May 1990

Round 9 1990 Regular Season

OK, I get it. Why am I kicking things off with a game that was a loss? Well, it comes down to this – win or lose, it was a night that became one of the most important events in the life of the franchise.

When the Kings played their first NBL season in 1988, their home court was the 4,500 seat State Sports Centre in Homebush. In 1989, with the team on an eight-game winning streak and leading the league, sell-out crowds were standing room only, and by season’s end they were turning people away at the door.

Sydney chairman Mike Wrublewski, a sporting visionary if ever there was one, realised the Kings had to take the next step in their development and moved the club in 1990 to the 10,500 seat Sydney Entertainment Centre – a move seen as incredibly risky by most people. But it paid off almost immediately as crowds flocked to see what became the new hot ticket in town.

And on the back of a three-game winning streak, the Kingdome was sold out for the very first time as 10,388 saw the purple and gold take on the Brisbane Bullets on an incredible Friday night, an event that was pumped up in the Sydney media beforehand as basketball’s version of the State of Origin.

The game itself was memorable for many reasons. A famous duel between first-year Bullets’ guard Derek Rucker and the Kings’ own ‘Mr Magic’, Steve Carfino. A sensational fightback by the Kings capped off by a dunk from Mark ‘Tang’ Dalton that blew the roof off the building. Sydney looking like they were heading for victory only to be undone by the magnificent Leroy Loggins.

But the big thing was the atmosphere in that stadium was phenomenal, from start to finish. The night felt different to anything that had gone before, including the playoffs in 1989. This was the real deal. This was the big time. The fans were noisy, there were celebrities by the truckload, and the game night experience, as generally was the case in those days, was outstanding.

And for someone like me, who had watched games in Sydney for years when no one really cared and crowds of less than 1,000 were common, the sight of a full house of over 10,000 people watching – and loving – basketball, is something I’ll never forget.

As former Sydney Daily Telegraph writer Jeff Wells wrote: that was the night pro basketball arrived in this town.

 

Sydney Kings 100 def. Adelaide 36ers 99

Sydney Entertainment Centre, 25 April 1992

Round 4, 1992 Regular Season

It was the night that this town completely fell in love with a team called the Sydney Kings.

A night where Mike Wrublewski famously said afterwards “It was like the building had a mass orgasm.”

A night when the legend of Dwayne McClain was really born.

McClain had already made a significant mark in Sydney since arriving to play for the Kings in the early stages of the 1991 season. One of the most high-profile athletes in NBL history and to this day one of the most gifted players ever to wear purple and gold, the 6’6” swingman had an incredible resume and reputation.

Best-known by basketball fans for being a key contributor for the Villanova University team that caused one of the great upsets in sports history by knocking off a juggernaut in the Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown University to win the 1985 NCAA Championship; Dwayne had also featured on the cover of US sports bible Sports Illustrated alongside both Ewing and Chris Mullin.

He was drafted in the second round of the NBA draft and played for the Indiana Pacers, was the cousin of both Pacers’ star Chuck Person and US women’s superstar Katrina McClain, close friends with Philadelphia 76ers megastar Charles Barkley and the only man in NBL history who ever played against both the legendary Larry Bird and Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson in the NBA and Michael Jordan in college when ‘His Airness’ was emerging as a star at the University of North Carolina.

On paper, Dwayne was as legitimate a star ballplayer as the NBL had ever seen. He became this country’s version of Jordan, a cultural phenomenon who transcended sports.

Dwayne averaged 28.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.1 blocks per game while shooting 58.5% from the field and 75% from the free throw line in that first season in 1991, but that was just the beginning of what would be a remarkable three-season run with the Kings.

And on this night against the Adelaide 36ers, McClain’s spectacular talent was in full effect – added to his typical flair for the dramatic.

Adelaide was a formidable unit in 1992. The inside muscle of Mark Bradtke and Mark Davis, coupled with the deadly outside shooting of Mike McKay, made the Sixers one of the most feared teams in the league. This game would prove to be no exception, with the 36ers in control for the majority of the contest, thanks mainly to a dominant performance from the 6’10” Bradtke. However, the Kings stayed close all night, due to some McClain brilliance and the strength of centre Dean ‘Man Mountain’ Uthoff.

And in what developed into a classic toe-to-toe struggle, it came down to the final 20 seconds as the Sixers, down 98-97, had the ball and were looking for the last shot. After a wild scramble under the basket, the ball came to Bradtke, who coolly nailed a bank-shot to put Adelaide in the lead, 99-98, with just seven seconds left.

Sydney needed a hero, and Dwayne McClain answered the call.

The D-Train received the ball on the inbounds, weaved his way through traffic, sliced into the paint and launched a sweet floater that kissed the net just before time expired, giving the Kings a win for the ages.

When the shot sailed through, the Kingdome exploded in a cacophony of noise, Dwayne was mobbed by his teammates and Mike Wrublewski just about lost his mind. In many ways, it was the signature basket of the 1992 season and would be replayed on television countless times. It was also the shot that truly elevated Dwayne McClain to superstar status in Sydney.

And in retrospect, it was a seminal moment in the life of the franchise. Suddenly, the Sydney Kings had become the team everyone in the city was talking about.

 

Sydney Kings 124 def. Melbourne Tigers 118

Sydney Entertainment Centre, 16 October 1992

Game 2 1992 Semi-Finals

After sweeping the Brisbane Bullets in the quarter-finals, the Kings had lost Game One of this three-game series at the National Tennis Centre in Melbourne, needing to win Game Two at the Kingdome to stay alive with a potential decider scheduled 48 hours later in Sydney.

Such was the anticipation for this game, it would become one of the quickest sell-outs in Sydney basketball history. It would also become the game which remains to this day one of my absolute favourite memories as a Sydney Kings fan.

But it didn’t start out well, as Melbourne’s legendary backcourt of Andrew Gaze and Lanard Copeland dominated the early going. Gaze nailed three triples to drive the Tigers to a 16-4 lead, and the Kings couldn’t get out of their own way in the first five minutes, committing several turnovers.

However, Mark Dalton had a three-point basket and three-point play in back-to-back possessions to really supercharge the massive crowd, and although Sydney was down 37-36 at the end of a wild first quarter when they were called for three offensive charges and had a whopping six turnovers, the Kings had grabbed the momentum.

Sydney coach Bob Turner then called on his bench early in the second period and the Kings went to another level behind Tim Morrissey’s lockdown defence on Copeland and unlikely heroes in backups Tony De Ambrosis and Peter Hill.

Indeed, that second period was unforgettable, with both teams producing some outstanding basketball. Buoyed by a home crowd that grew louder and more intense by the second, the Kings produced a memorable run when they hit nine of 10 shots at one point in the second period to forge ahead. And given how much Lanard Copeland started to fill it up from the perimeter late in the quarter, every basket was vital.

But with De Ambrosis seemingly everywhere, giving the home team an enormous boost of energy, and Dwayne McClain well and truly in his groove, Sydney charged to a 68-64 lead at intermission and heard it from the fans as they headed to the rooms.

In the first half, the team shot the ball at a surreal 75% from the field. They needed each and every one of those buckets against a Melbourne unit powered by Gaze and Copeland that was determined to sweep their way to the Grand Final.

But a big key was the Kings’ third period, in which they outscored the Tigers 33-19. Under the circumstances, it was their best 12 minutes of the 1992 season, led by the D-Train, who had his way with the Tigers in the period, blasting them for 14 points.

Sydney kept their foot on the gas and led by as much as 20 early in the fourth quarter, but in typical fashion, the ‘Cardiac Kids’ found a way to make things interesting, letting the dangerous Tigers back in it late – Melbourne would outscore Sydney 35-23 in the final period.

In the end, the Kings had to rely on four straight free throws from McClain in the final minute to preserve a 124-118 win in front of a crowd that Andrew Gaze – who finished with 37 points, six rebounds and six steals – described as the loudest he had ever heard.

Given the stakes involved, it was arguably the best game that Dwayne McClain ever played for the Sydney Kings. He ripped apart the Melbourne defence for a Sydney playoff record 45 points – he was 15 of 21 from the field, 15 of 18 from the free throw line and added six rebounds and seven steals. And then there was one Tony De Ambrosis, who went a perfect seven of seven from the field for the game and provided extraordinary energy and activity off the bench, especially in his incredible second quarter performance where he brought the crowd to their feet time and again.

In fact, it was the best game De Ambrosis ever played in purple and gold. He did it all – blocked an Andrew Gaze layup attempt, took a charge, grabbed a key defensive board, forced Melbourne turnovers, you name it. His 16 points were the cherry on top.

It also helped that the Kings shot an otherworldly 73.8% from the field over the 48 minutes, the best single game shooting performance by any team in National Basketball League playoff history and the second-best shooting performance by a team in ANY game in the history of the NBL.

This game was just the ultimate rush, and still stands as the best and loudest Sydney crowd I have ever been a part of; even better than the first game of the Grand Final Series in 2003, or the extraordinary Championship Series decider in 2004. And after that epic 1992 Kings-Tigers battle, the lobby of the Kingdome was an absolute zoo. Most reports had the crowd numbers at well over a thousand, there to acclaim their heroes in what were amazing scenes.

 

Sydney Kings 131 def. North Melbourne Giants 108

Sydney Entertainment Centre, 26 September, 1994

Game 1 1994 Playoffs First Round

Between the highs of the late 1980s/early 1990s and the lows of three years in the last decade of the millennium, this was one of the most entertaining teams ever to wear the purple and gold, managing to capture the imagination of the Sydney public despite the departure of megastar Dwayne McClain at the end of the 1993 season.

It was just a fun team to watch, a group that really seemed to connect with the local community, a squad that featured an amazing high-wire act named Leon ‘Above the Rim’ Trimmingham, a super-shooter in Mario Donaldson, the ‘Man Mountain’ Dean Uthoff, Mark ‘Tang’ Dalton and guards Damian ‘Threeo’ Keogh and Greg Hubbard.

And it was a Kings’ roster that probably got as much out of their talent as any Sydney team ever did. Led by the explosive Trimmingham, whose nightly pyrotechnics drew crowds to the Kingdome like moths to a flame, Sydney played above themselves for much of the regular season and finished with a 16-10 record, good for seventh and a date with the second-place North Melbourne Giants in the first round of the playoffs.

Most thought the Kings would be swept in the three-game series, for this was an awesome Giants outfit coached by a young genius named Brett Brown and featuring a previously unknown point guard from Harlem in New York City named Darryl McDonald, who had taken the league by storm that year, plus a big-time import forward in Paul ‘The Mailman’ Maley and quality Australian content in veterans Larry Sengstock, Darryl Pearce, Rod Johnson and Paul Rees.

Sydney went into the series as decided underdogs, especially given the fact North Melbourne had whipped them in two regular season meetings. A sweep seemed inevitable.

However, in Game One of the series, the Kings had other ideas.

In front of a disbelieving Monday night crowd of 9,092, Sydney rocketed out of the blocks, taking advantage of some fatigue from the Giants, who were playing their third road game in four days. But the home team showed no mercy, hitting one long bomb after another in one of the most overwhelming barrages in the annals of the National Basketball League.

An amazing first quarter set the tone for the game.

Sydney led 11-0 in the first 71 seconds, were up 26-9 inside five minutes and kept pouring it on, leading by the incredible score of 43-25 at the end of the opening period. The Giants simply didn’t know what hit them as the Kings kept firing away from the outside and kept knocking them down.

By halftime, the game was over as a contest as Sydney received a standing ovation from the Kingdome faithful, leading by an extraordinary 77-51 at the main break.

The second half was a mere formality as the purple and gold cruised to the W, but the biggest story to come out of the game was the Kings’ unbelievable performance from the perimeter, with the team setting a franchise playoff record by knocking down 15 three-pointers from just 18 attempts – a success rate beyond the arc of an absurd 83.3%. It was arguably the greatest three-point shooting exhibition ever by a team in an NBL playoff game.

Greg Hubbard was the chief destroyer, going eight of nine from long distance and finishing with 32 points in just 28 minutes court time, and he had plenty of help. Mario Donaldson went three of four from the outside as part of his 27-point performance and Damian Keogh chipped in with four threes at 80% in his near triple-double of 18 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

That was one special night in Sydney – whatever the Sydney Kings touched, turned to gold.

 

Sydney Kings 140 def. Adelaide 36ers 120

Sydney Entertainment Centre, 21 September 1996

Round 23 1996 Regular Season

There were many games in 1996 to choose from, but I settled on this shootout with the Adelaide 36ers because it epitomised what the 1996 squad was all about – unquestionably one of the most entertaining Sydney Kings teams the franchise has ever produced.

And that was important at the time, given how disappointing the 1995 campaign had been for the purple and gold, a losing season that saw the departure of long-time head coach Bob Turner and foundation members Damian Keogh and Mark Dalton.

So, 1996 tipped off a new era at the Kings. There was a new head coach in Alan Black, a number of roster changes, and as a part of their move in what they saw as a new direction for the franchise, the club updated their uniform, bringing in a black strip for the very first time to go along with the white, purple and gold uniforms they had worn over the years. They also added in pinstripes to that black uniform, a look that had become popular in the NBA at the time thanks to the Charlotte Hornets and their superstar forward Larry ‘Grandmama’ Johnson.

The newcomers on the roster included an athletic import guard from Arizona State University named Isaac Burton, who would quickly take Sydney by storm; a left-handed power forward named Melvin Thomas who had what seemed to be a million moves in the low post and a talented swingman named Stephen Whitehead who was poached from the Melbourne Tigers.

But the biggest addition in 1996 was none other than Shane ‘The Hammer’ Heal, who at the time was the highest profile Australian the club had recruited to that point.

Heal had already made a name for himself in Australian sport through his exploits for Brisbane and Geelong in the NBL, not to mention the Australian national team, and was exactly the kind of exceptionally talented and occasionally controversial character Alan Black and Mike Wrublewski were looking for to get Sydney talking about the Kings again in a positive manner – someone who could bring people through the doors.

And that, Shane did, generating enormous media and public interest and re-energising the organisation.

Fuelled by the destructive Heal-Burton backcourt, the Kings became one of the most compelling teams in the league in 1996. They were must-watch viewing, from Heal’s brilliance to the explosiveness of Burton, the productivity of Thomas and the toughness of Bruce Bolden.

Kings’ fans loved it all, with a tangible energy at the Kingdome on game nights, both on and off the court, similar to the Leon Trimmingham-powered squad in 1994. Coach Black was blessed with a wealth of offensive talent at his disposal, and Sydney’s head coach relished the opportunity to open up the throttle and unleash his devastating attack.

When the 1996 regular season concluded, the offensive numbers Sydney had put up were staggering. The Kings averaged a phenomenal 108.8 points per game in the regular season – the most in franchise history – and also set team records that have never been broken for regular season field goal percentage (51.6%) and three-point percentage (41.2%).

This game was a microcosm of just how entertaining that 1996 team really was.

Ironically, the 36ers featured as one of their imports one Leon Trimmingham, who had controversially not been re-signed by the Kings in the offseason after two great years in Sydney. And in this, his first return to the Kingdome, he reminded everyone in the Harbour City what a talent he was by going for 30 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Adelaide also boasted enormous firepower across the board, with luminaries like Brett Maher, Martin Cattalini, Mark Davis and John Rillie. But even with all that, and Trimmingham on fire, they couldn’t keep up with a Kings unit that unleashed hell at the Kingdome that night.

Sydney dropped 40 points in a rollicking first quarter to offset Adelaide’s 36 and never looked back, blasting 73 points to halftime and adding another 67 in the second to blow away the 36ers. They shot the ball at 68.4% from the field – the second-best shooting performance in a game in franchise history – and had 44 assists as a team, the best ever in a game by any Sydney Kings team.

Isaac Burton had 30 of his 36 points in the first half alone; Melvin Thomas established another record with 16 assists, which were the most ever by a Kings’ player in a single game; Shane Heal had 23 points and 12 dimes and an astonishing five Kings scored at least 20 points.

It was one of those nights when you walked away from the Kingdome feeling exhausted, exhilarated and thrilled by what you had witnessed – but more importantly proud that you were a fan of the Sydney Kings.