Basketball On The Internet.

IT'S official. The Adelaide 36ers have just made their best coaching decision since hiring Joey Wright by appointing five-time NBL championship winner Trevor Gleeson as head coach for the next three years, reuniting him with Bryce Cotton from their glory days in Perth.

The duo won NBL championships together in 2017, 2019 and 2020, Gleeson already with two titles under his belt at that stage and previous coaching gigs at Townsville Crocodiles and Melbourne Tigers.

A dual NBL Coach of the Year, Gleeson was an assistant coach at the NBA's Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks, before spending two years helming the Chiba Jets in Japan's B-League.

In 2014 his Wildcats beat Wright's 36ers for the championship, Adelaide again in 2018 losing the championship, this time to Melbourne, and then this season past to Sydney.

Laden with talent, the 36ers are on the brink of returning to title favouritism for the first time since winning it all in 2002.

"I can't wait to get to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre," Gleeson said today in a social media post. "I've been on the receiving end over there for a number of years so I'm looking forward to - you know, what is it, 41 sell-outs?

"I'm looking forward to getting over there and getting that place and pumping. It was electrifying watching on TV in the playoffs and I'm really excited to be there to get that place rolling. Looking forward to it and hopefully you'll be cheering loud."

Adelaide fell a missed layup at the end of regulation short of claiming Game 5 of the Grand Finals and with it, the championship, losing a cracking series in the overtime.

Cotton was outstanding across the series, winning Game 2 on the buzzer with a hard-driving layup under pressure to beat the siren. His recruitment for the 2025-26 season was a huge coup and virtually guaranteed the 36ers would reach at least the semi finals.

But to actually go the distance, Adelaide needed a top coach. Sadly, career NBA assistant Mike Wells was far from it.

Gleeson? He's a whole other story and part of the triumvirate with Adrian Hurley and Rob Beveridge who created "Wildcats basketball" and turned it into a feared and revered entity.

And that was before six-time league MVP Cotton even arrived in the west.

"Oh really," Cotton said today when first informed of Gleeson's appointment. "I'm a kid in a candy store."

Adelaide NBL fans will be feeling the same. After devolving from the "city of churches" to the club that lurches from one crisis to another, the 36ers are finally back in safe hands.

CHAMPS! Adelaide's last NBL-winning team, Phil Smyth's 2002 outfit.