"Generational Player": The inside story of how the 36ers landed Bryce Cotton

The Sixers pulled off the biggest signing coup in NBL history, simultaneously stunning their biggest rivals and flagging their intent to win a drought-breaking championship. Here's how they did it.

Credit: JBC Studios

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Sometimes, the news finds you.

You can spend days, weeks, or even months chasing a lead, and seemingly get nowhere. Other times, your phone rings, and you’re suddenly sitting on one of the biggest stories in NBL history.

This tweet was a concise summation of a move that instantly shifted the axis of powers in the NBL, sparked equal parts fury and jubilation on either side of the league’s oldest rivalry, and equipped the league’s sleeping giant to make a serious run at a drought-breaking championship. When the Adelaide 36ers brass officially addressed media the following day, owner Grant Kelley didn’t shy away from the magnitude of the moment.

“Every now and then you get a generational player in sports. If you look at the NFL, it's probably Tom Brady, it’s [Wayne] Gretzky in hockey, and of course, Michael Jordan in basketball,” he explained. “If you look at the NBL in the last 10 years, Bryce Cotton is the player - and maybe there's one or two others - but he is the player who can consistently exert his influence on a team sport.”

Here’s exactly how the Adelaide 36ers inexplicably lured the league’s greatest ever import away from their fiercest rival - a week before re-signing Montrezl Harrell! - in a bold statement of intent to break a two decade championship drought.