Basketball On The Internet.

DAVE ADKINS, a man who for his services supplying appropriate imports alone assuredly should be enshrined in any NBL Hall of Fame and, by now, the Basketball Australia Hall, has penned a piece revisiting the "glory days" of the Hobart Tassie Devils, in line with their 2024 Reunion. 

Hobart Tassie Devils 2024 Reunion: Legacy of 86-87-88 Tassie Devils

By Dave Adkins

ALTHOUGH our teams didn’t win an NBL title, we did achieve the highest level of success in the era of Hobart Devil and Tassie Devil club history and recorded the only winning season (in 1987 with a 14-12 mark).

That record stood 39 years in Hobart basketball annals, from its inception as an NBL team in 1983 until a different organisation and newly licensed Tasmanian club’s (Jack Jumpers) 2022 season with 17 wins 11 losses. 

The efforts of our 86-87-88 teams attracted strong media attention and public interest and provided the impetus for the building nearly overnight of the Derwent Centre, the first NBL standard arena in the state.

Wayne Monaghan, club president, was the leader and financial drive shaft of the club along with his hard working pals Peter Loone, Ivan King and other important volunteers.

It was a formidable challenge as Hobart, like some other teams in the league at the time, was not prepared for the NBL financial and competitive grind, and won only 8 games in its first three years of competition and went broke.

NBL players and coaches are now making high six figure salaries, in contrast to our players in the 80s who were working full time jobs in addition to playing highly competitive basketball in a national competition.

As Hobart’s coach, my best memories are our teams slowly gaining respect and relevance in the NBL with historic wins along the way over the league’s best teams, home and away, with mainland teams leary of the trip to Kingborough.

The most disappointing and saddest memory was the loss of Tim Boyd in a car accident  – Tim would have been a key player with that team and beyond. And biggest regret is my replacing Greg Giddings in an import spot in 1988.

The legacy of these three teams is good reason to reunite and celebrate.  It is a chance to recall and cherish authentic achievements. 

I am doing that from here. You as players gave strong effort, carved out respect for Tassie Devil teams in the NBL, and impacted positively on Tasmanian and Australian basketball.  Coaching the 86-87-88 teams is important part of my own lifetime basketball memories and experiences.