We were there: Inside the inner sanctum of the NBL's Championship Decider

The greatest championship in Australian basketball history, and Sydney's ecstasy was Adelaide's agony. In amongst the sea of tears and champagne, here's what happened when the cameras stopped rolling.

Credit: Sydney Kings

In life’s more painful moments, silence can be deafening.

But it can be more than that too. Silence can be all-consuming, unbearable, and entirely overwhelming. The only thing worse?

Noise.

Specifically, the kind of noise that infiltrates the silence. Echoes of pure ecstasy humming through shared walls. Unbridled euphoria that instantly amplifies as a door cracks open, and lingers in the air after it closes. The all too familiar sound of two hands connecting for a high-five. The popping of champagne corks, escaping bottles that will never actually be consumed. The unmistakeable chorus of hoarse voices coming together, all out of key: We are the champions…

As the 36ers sat in the visiting locker room of Qudos Bank Arena, those were the sounds that cut into the silence. The brutal, painful, heartbreaking sounds of coming this close to winning a championship.

For the Kings, that noise was their rite of passage. The reward for clinching the greatest championship in NBL history: forcing overtime after an inspired fourth quarter comeback, at home, in front of a record crowd, before taking the throne as the league’s literal kings.

While the NBL broadcast masterfully captured every moment on court, there is still plenty you didn’t see on the coverage. This is what happened when the cameras stopped rolling, inside the stadium’s inner sanctum.