Basketball On The Internet.

"BEWARE the Ides of March" - the classic warning to wannabe emperor Julius Caesar but, as it turns out, a March 15 omen equally appropriate for basketball's undisputed "king" Ken Cole who died peacefully this morning, surrounded by family. The sport's most colourful and controversial figure prepared us for this moment for years.

So although it came as no surprise, it's reality and finality made it no less sad or debilitating.

For decades Ken battled two severe life-compromising conditions, the medication to ease one level of his suffering exacerbating the other condition, and vice versa.

It made his daily life increasingly moribund although you wouldn't have known it for speaking with him.

After a lengthy update of how he was confusing and defying modern medicine, the rest of any conversation was upbeat and about basketball, his passion for the sporting obsession which changed his life never abating.

His general upbeat nature was what set him apart in his ability to motivate athletes like few others in Australian sport.

He was one of our all-time greats as a player, an Olympian and a FIBA World Cup Boomer.

As a player-coach he steered St Kilda to the top of the tree in Australia in the time before the NBL, before closing his playing days in SA with South Adelaide.

Then as a coach, he enjoyed major triumphs including two NBL Grand Finals in 1983 with West Adelaide Bearcats and 1985 with Adelaide 36ers.

In 1986, it was "third time lucky" as the 36ers posted the greatest single-season record in NBL history when they went 24-2, before going on to claim the club's first championship.

Despite being wheelchair-ridden and in constant discomfort, he still attended as many 36ers home games as he could, this man who wore a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, earrings and even a long ponytail when the mood struck him.

He was unique - of that there can be no doubt or argument. But if you don't know that, then learn more about his incredible legacy, by visiting these links - https://www.botinagy.com/blog/the-king-should-be-in-hof-castle/ and https://www.botinagy.com/blog/old-king-cole-still-a-merry-soul/

He was eventually inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame, as, of course, he should have been.

Whether you loved him or otherwise, there can be do debate he enriched the sport with his presence or that knowing him made life better. There will never be another like him.

May he rest in peace and live long in our memories.

FOND MEMORY: WNBL icon Tracey Browning, me, Ken and his wife Pauline in 2016.