“The choice was easy”: How the Sixers landed Gleeson

There was plenty of interest in the job but according to Adelaide 36ers General Manager of Basketball Operations, Matt Weston, Trevor Gleeson was a standout to be the next Head Coach of the club.

Gleeson was on Friday announced as the successor to Mike Wells, after the American’s shock departure for family reasons earlier this month.

Gleeson will reunite with six-time NBL MVP Bryce Cotton in Adelaide after winning three titles together in Perth.

The five-time NBL Championship winning coach has been overseas for five years in the NBA and in Japan’s B.League.

Speaking after the announcement on Friday, Weston explained how there were a number of coaches interested in the role but the club knew Gleeson was its top target.

“The choice for us was very easy,” Weston explained to Adelaide media.

“There was one person that we saw that was going to be able to lead this group into the future. We do have a team that's built to win now.

“We did get a lot of calls from coaches and agents, and for instance, there were three coaches from the Euroleague that were very interested in coming, and that was very flattering, and it just shows where the club is now getting to and where the league is getting to.”

Weston said with other NBL clubs hunting for head coaches, the Sixers had to move quickly and was on the phone to Gleeson within hours of Wells confirming he would not return to Australia from the US.

“Trevor's appointment here from a basketball standpoint was not only about what he's done in winning championships, it's how he's done it,” Weston said, revealing he had known Gleeson for a decade.

“One of the keys that I wanted was, how do you build relationships with the players? That's a key in sport these days.

“It's not just the X's and O's and how you execute. It goes back another step to how do you build those relationships? So, my whole conversations at the start with Trevor were around that, and it was very encouraging to how he builds relationships and how he maintains them through the year and the importance he puts on them.

“That was real music to my ears and (Executive Chairman) Grant (Kelley)’s, because as a club, that's how we want to be known. That's how we operate from a front office to a back office as well. So it's a very exciting time for the whole club.”

There had been suggestions that Gleeson was keen to return to Australia some months ago and reports that the Sixers had spoken with him.

But Weston said that was not the case, and it would be poor business to do so.

“We didn't have any conversations during the season,” he said.

“That's not something we do whilst we've got a coach - not looking for your next coach.

“And I tell you why. It sets a bad precedent to the person you're talking to, because if I'm in that position, I'll be thinking, ‘well, they might do that to me one day’. And you just don't do that.

“I've known Trevor for over a decade. So, once we knew Mike was out, we sat and said, ‘alright, let's go to the top of the tree. Who do we want?’

“And then that's what we looked at… and we started those discussions.”

Gleeson remains overseas for a few more weeks but after being announced as the club’s new Head Coach, he described his motivation to win a sixth NBL title in a club video interview.

Weston said he had confidence the 58-year-old would drive the Sixers forward and put the club in a position for a first NBL championship since 2002.

“He sent me a message after he signed,” Weston smiled.

“I can't say what was in the message, but it was along the lines of ‘let's win this thing now and win more than one’.

“There were some other words in there too.

“Knowing Trev, he's very competitive. He only wants excellence, and again, why I know he can get to that level of excellence that we want as a club is because of the key relationships that he builds.”

Executive Chairman Grant Kelley said it was no secret the club was bitterly disappointed after being a matter of seconds away from a national championship in NBL26, but it had made moves in the off-season to ensure that the club would be challenging strongly again in the coming seasons, including Gleeson’s appointment.

“I think the mistake that you can make when you get very close to a championship is to rest on your laurels,” Mr Kelley said.

“One of the reasons that we were so active in free agency, and it started literally, the day after the game five loss to Sydney, was we weren't satisfied.

“In the last 10 years, we've been to the grand final series twice. We've lost narrowly twice in game five.

“If I contrast what we did this year to what we did some years ago, this year, we were immediately active. The player moves, I think, are evidence of that. We know that we needed a stronger defensive identity, and, we need to use the pain of what happened in game five to actually make ourselves stronger.”

He relayed a story from the “Invincibles” era 40 years ago that saw the 36ers win their first championship, and explained he had leant on history to drive the club forward into NBL27.

“The late great Ken Cole always told me a story of how at the end of the 1985 (Championship series) loss to Brisbane, literally on the bus, coming back from that, it was a game three loss, but they lost 2-1 in the final game.

“They came back and actually resolved - he and Al Green and Mark Davis, that they would come back and win it the following year, and they did, with a team that became the Invincibles.

“So, we used Ken's legacy in Ken's memory to drive ourselves in this last four weeks, five weeks, which is all it's been, to actually push for something well beyond what we achieved last year.”

Gleeson will start officially with the club next month.