Adelaide 36ers sack coach and club legend Scott Ninnis less than a year after taking job

Some of the players were rallied to Ninnis’ cause, forcing Adelaide’s front office into damage control as the club shut down on-court practice to media.

Sources said players thought Ninnis was joking when he told them he’d been sacked, following a fiery meeting with senior management where tempers flared.

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Players typically see the writing on the wall when a coach is on shaky ground but sources said the group was genuinely blindsided by the decision to give the 233-game club legend his marching orders.

It’s a sad end to the two-time Adelaide NBL champion’s second stint at the helm of the Sixers, who he led to a 8-7 record after taking over from CJ Bruton, mid-last season, and the second time he has been sacked by the club (2010).

Ninnis had brought renewed hope to the City of Churches, finishing with an 8-7 record after taking over from the sacked CJ Bruton, mid-last season. But, in the months after his February appointment, Sixers’ management had become increasingly concerned at the 58-year-old’s “failure” to meet “leadership standards”.

Sources said Ninnis, who did not return calls or texts before deadline on Monday, had not spoken with highly-rated new assistant Mike Wells — a 30-year veteran of six NBA clubs, hired to improve the knowledge in the coaching department — about basketball in the week since the American landed in Adelaide.

This masthead has been told Ninnis was angered when the 36ers moved to recruit a veteran assistant in the off-season and blocked his move to hire long-time assistant and former teammate Graham Kubank.

The Sixers had courted Illawarra championship coach and former Boomers’ mentor Brendan Joyce, before Wells was appointed.

General manager of basketball Matt Weston, who joined the club in a new role a month after Ninnis was re-signed, said the Sixers had formed the view a change was necessary after it became apparent the “standards expected of an NBL team for season 2025 were not present”.

“Where we are in the rebuild, we just don’t see that Scott’s capability is aligned to where we want to be, after we reflected through the off-season,” Weston said.

“We felt it’s best to make a decision now.

“We need to move forward.”

Weston denied he’d “butted heads” with Ninnis beyond “robust discussions” around the direction of the club.

The Sixers have loaded up after finishing second-to-last in NBL24, with marquee local pair Isaac Humphries and Dejan Vasiljevic, joined by imports Kendric Davis and Jarell Martin, and have made no secret of their championship aspirations.

Haunted by last year’s 4-9 start that ended with CJ Bruton’s controversial axing, chief executive Nic Barbato said the club made an early call to ensure Wells, who has been appointed head coach, had some runway to prepare for the new season, which begins in Perth against arch rival Sydney on Sunday, September 22.

“Big decision for us, we felt (we’ve put) together a great roster that we think can go a long way this season (but) we just felt like the standards we had set as an organisation to reset the basketball culture to get back to winning ways weren’t quite there,” Barbato said.

“There’s been challenges, pretty much from day one, of the six months (since Ninnis was appointed), if we’re honest with each other.

“As an organisation, we wanted to give every bit of ability for Scott to improve, to learn, to adapt, and that didn’t happen, in our view.

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“We’ve decided it’s better to make this call early. In the past, we haven’t done that, we’ve let that go when we have had doubts. We’ve made the call early for us to give ourselves the best chance to succeed this season.”

Sources said the playing group has quickly grown fond of Wells and, while they’re still processing the shock of Ninnis’ departure, there’s an element of understanding the decision was out of their control and there is a recognition they need to get on with the job.

It’s understood the Sixers will be forced to pay a hefty severance to Ninnis.