Adelaide chasing Phoenix revenge as former Sixer Nathan Sobey notches up 300 NBL games

The pain of last season’s finals exit against the Phoenix still burns for Vasiljevic, but he must quickly move on with ex-36er Nathan Sobey coming to the City of Churches with a point to prove.

Sobey played 121 of his 300 NBL games with Adelaide over four seasons, so he’ll be desperate to put on a show in his milestone match.

Vasiljevic will be ready to fight fire with fire – revealing he is fuelled by the disappointment of giving up a 21-point lead to lose to the Phoenix in last year’s Play-In game.

“I do reminisce on that type of stuff and hopefully payback is a b****,” Vasiljevic said.

“We were up by almost 20 points at halftime and we shat the bed.

“It hurts and it hurt for a bit for me. I don’t know about others, but when you are up by 20 points you really should be controlling the game.

“They (the Phoenix) were able to step on our throats in the third quarter and came back to win that game.

“I know Sobes on a personal level, so I have a lot of respect for him and to play 300 games, but we’re trying to spoil that party.

“We know what the Phoenix did to us to knock us out last season, so we’ve got to start off strong.”

Sobey is an NBL veteran and a bronze medal winning Boomer, but according to Phoenix coach Josh King the guard remains one of the league’s most under-appreciated players.

King believes the 35-year-old is destined to play well into his late 30s because he treats his body like a temple.

“In my opinion I think Sobes is one of the best players and guards in the league that no one talks about,” King said.

“I can only speak about the one year I’ve been here and in that time he has been unbelievable.

“I feel like the ghosts of the past and little things I hear have rubbed people the wrong way, but this guy has been awesome for us.

“As the kids like to say these today, Sobes is a guy who definitely deserves his flowers because it is impressive what he has done.

“And if he can continue on this trajectory, I don’t think he is at the end of the road. In fact, I think he is in his prime because it doesn’t look like he is slowing down anytime soon.”

Sobey’s just the 18th player to reach 300 games in the 40-minute era, something he says he’ll reflect more on when looking back on his journey.

The milestone game comes against the club he spent four seasons with from 2015-19 and took to the 2018 grand final.

There’s less in that now than there might have been when he made the move from the Sixers to Brisbane for NBL20.

“It’s one of those things (playing a former club) that, once you’ve been around for a while and now that I’ve played for a few clubs, it’s not too weird or anything for me, now,” Sobey said.

“I think when I first left Adelaide, it was definitely a little bit different, a bit weird, because we had some really good years in Adelaide, and I hadn’t moved around.

“I’ve been around a while, though, and now it doesn’t have much effect anymore.”

Sobey, meanwhile, is excited to welcome former NBA man Wes Iwundu into the Phoenix fold as a fit for their high octane playing style.

“He’s going to help us a lot, understanding that we’re going to play a certain type of way and that’s not going to change much,” he said.

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“We all know how Josh wants to play, and we love playing that way, and we’re going to continue to try and get better playing that way, because we really haven’t played our best basketball yet.”

ADELAIDE 36ERS (2nd, 3-1) V SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX (4th, 2-1)

Thursday, 7.30pm AEDT (7pm ACDT), Adelaide Entertainment Centre