Lowery launches scathing Adelaide attack

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Damon Lowery has attacked the lack of fight shown by the Adelaide 36ers during their loss to Tasmania.

Former NBL champion Damon Lowery has launched a scathing assessment of the Adelaide 36ers, and has attacked the attitude, pride and "ticker" of the club, following its pair of Round 9 defeats to New Zealand and Tasmania.

The 36ers posted just 59 points in their Saturday night defeat to the JackJumpers, and were on the wrong side of a league-largest 35-point margin in the defeat. Their score was just two points better than Adelaide’s all-time worst game, and equaled its lowest score of the 40-minute era.

It was also the first time Adelaide had scored fewer than 60 points in a game in a decade.

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Following the defeat, star wing DJ Vasiljevic and head coach CJ Bruton lamented a difficult travel schedule as a reason for Saturday’s insipid performance, which Lowery is having none of.

“I couldn’t believe what I was actually hearing, I couldn’t believe two guys with a combined eight championships were going to a press conference after getting their arses handed to them, would say something like that and go at the NBL schedule,” Lowery said on NBL Now.

“The NBL is not your fight, the fight was with the Tasmania JackJumpers, that’s who your fight was with and you wanted no part of it. You didn’t want a part of that fight before you even got there. I heard moanings and grumblings before the weekend even started.

“Before you know it, you’re down 20 and it got too hard, it got too hard for you. You had no resolve whatsoever.

“If you want to find somebody’s character, if you want to find what somebody is about, put them to the sword, then you’ll find out. We found out where the Adelaide 36ers’ heart is at, then they show up in the press conference and started that, I couldn’t believe it.

“There’s only one word to describe that attitude, and it is soft. There’s no other way to say it. That’s a soft attitude, and attitude reflects leadership. I don’t know who the hell the leader is in that team, but they need to have a hard look at themselves.

“I don’t care if they have to go to the moon and then go to Tasmania, where’s your fight? Where’s the heart?”

Lowery also reflected on some of the tougher road trips of his career on Twitter, and cited the Tasmania SEABL triple-header where he faced three games in three days in three cities.

“Fri (sic) in Hobart, drive to Devonport in the middle of the night to get to the Sat (sic) game, then drive to Launceston for the Sunday game at noon,” Lowery tweeted.

NBL analyst Peter Hooley also cited his experiences playing in England with the Plymouth Raiders.

“With all this talk about travel for games, [it] reminds me of being in England when we had to be on a 12-seater minibus at 5am (there were 12 passengers),” Hooley wrote.

“Drive 9-10 hours with two Subway stops, get off the bus and play that night then shower and head straight back.”

Lowery says this weekend’s home clash against Cairns offers the only opportunity Adelaide has to hope to regain some pride following the aftermath of Round 9.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">With all this talk about travel for games, reminds me of being in England when we had to be on a 12-seater minibus at 5am (there was 12 passengers), drive 9/10 hours with two Subway stops. Get off the bus and play that night, then shower and head straight back ?</p>— Peter Hooley (@PeterHooley12) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeterHooley12/status/1731563216810172605?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Where do you go from here? I’m going to all those churches in Adelaide and I’m going to beg for forgiveness. ‘I’m sorry for embarrassing myself and the club in that press conference, I wish I could take that back’,” Lowery continued.

“If I’m CJ you will not see one basketball at training, because basketball isn’t the problem. It’s their ticker so I’m going to attack their bodies in training.

“They’ve got one more chance to come out at home – their next game is at home – they’d better do some soul searching and resurrect some pride these people in Adelaide want to have in this team.”

Adelaide will host Cairns on Saturday night, live on ESPN via Kayo at 8pm AEDT.