Ninnis humbled by Hall of Fame honour

The only man involved in every Adelaide 36ers NBL championship Scott Ninnis still can't believe he is about to enter the Sixers' Hall of Fame but he is humbled by the honour he's about to receive alongside 'Mean' Al Green.

Ninnis will join Green as the latest inductees to the Adelaide 36ers Hall of Fame during the 2022 MVP Gala Dinner on Friday April 29 at the Sky City Ballroom.

That will see the pair join Ken Cole, Mark Davis, Darryl Pearce, Phil Smyth and Brett Maher as the inductees so far into the Hall of Fame for the 36ers.

The resume of Ninnis speaks for itself and he is a natural to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t caught totally unawares when he found the news out.

Usually quite the prankster himself, Ninnis was the butt of an April Fools prank by chairman Grant Kelley, but once he realised the news was for real, it sunk in and he was feeling quite blown away.

"It was a funny one. I got taken out to lunch with Brett Maher by the owner Grant Kelley and the CEO Nic Barbato on April Fools Day," Ninnis said during his podcast, Sixers Fix. 

"Grant tried to crack a joke and told me he wasn’t happy with the work Brett and I were doing for the club, and that we were getting the sack. Then I said I was in the Hall of Fame by the way and then he said, April Fools. 

"They were all in on it and were having a bit of a chuckle and laugh about it, but in my mind I wasn’t sure if the Hall of Fame thing was the joke. I was completely caught off guard and Brett said it was the only time he's ever heard me speechless, and it still is incredibly humbling."

While Ninnis might not be ready to accept that he is a deserved Hall of Fame inductee, the facts more than outweigh that and speak for themselves.

Of his 318-game NBL career, Ninnis played 233 matches for the 36ers including being part of the championships of 1986 and then in his final season of 1998.

He would then go on to be an assistant coach for the championships of 1999 and 2002, and would later become the club's head coach for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Even currently, Ninnis operates the 36ers' community programs alongside Maher, he hosts his own 36ers podcast and is an ever present figure at all Sixers' home games.

Despite all that, Ninnis couldn't be more humbled to know he's about to be able to add Hall of Famer to his resume.

"You look at the people in this Hall of Fame and I personally don’t think that I deserve to be along those sort of names," Ninnis said.

"I've been fortunate enough to have longevity with the club and a lot of success, but you talk about Darryl Pearce, Mark Davis, Brett Maher, Phil Smyth, Ken Cole and now Al Green, it is quite humbling. 

"Then you look at some of the other names who haven’t been inducted yet and I'm not making this up, I feel incredibly blessed and I may have got a little bit emotional when they told me. It's quite incredible for a club I've been involved with for more than 20 years to be alongside those sort of names."

Ninnis is also delighted for Al Green that he is also being inducted to the Hall of Fame and he can't speak highly enough of the regard he holds him in.

"Let's just hope he gets interviewed first because there's no chance that I will get a word edgewise. That's the other thing, he is a man who has been a league MVP, a championship player with West Adelaide Bearcats and the 36ers, he had 71 points in one game," he said. 

"I guess that's where I struggle a little bit with myself because you are talking about one of the all-time legends with the history of the NBL with him. I'm very realistic and I know where I fit in the whole world of basketball with the 36ers but what Al did was off the chart. 

"Pound for pound, inch for inch he's still the best athlete I've ever seen. I've watched him win two Bay Sheffields, which is South Australia's premier sprint race, and that was his side gig. He was incredible so it is incredibly humbling to be alongside some of these names."

As for what he's going to say on the night during his induction speech, Ninnis has no idea but he knows it will be an emotional occasion and he can't wait for it.

"I haven’t thought about what I'm going to say and it's the one thing that has got me a little bit tongue tied," Ninnis said. 

"It is humbling and it's incredible. When you look at the names of the people who will get added to that Hall of Fame and you're talking about Peter Ali, Martin Cattalini, Kevin Brooks, Darnell Mee, Ray Wood, Mike McKay and so on and so on, it's quite phenomenal. 

"I'm very proud to have had the longevity I've had with this club and it's very exciting. I can't tell you what I'm going to say on the night, I'll probably be a blubbering mess, but I'll get through it I'm sure like only I can and it's pretty cool."