36ers furious at Bogut tweet

The Adelaide 36ers have hit back at Andrew Bogut for claiming the club is in crisis and that it held emergency meetings about the future of coach Mike Wells.

In first place with a 21-8 record, the 36ers have lost four of their past six games.

Sydney Kings co-owner and assistant coach Andrew Bogut posting on X on Monday:

“Pretty wild league where the ‘leaders’ of your team meet to chat about firing your Head Coach, whilst you sit in 1st place on the NBL Ladder, with only a handful of games to go until the playoffs!”

The 36ers hit back through club owner Grant Kelley.

“I thought it was very unfortunate for an assistant coach of another club to do that,” Kelley said on FIVEAA.

“It's not something we would do. We wouldn't allow our assistant coaches, let alone anyone in the organisation, to comment on another club.

“We actually spoke to the Kings immediately and they've undertaken to us that they'll speak to Andrew, and hopefully we won't see too much more of this.”

With just three rounds remaining until the Finals tip-off, Kelley knows his team has to turn things around.

“Here's the reality: the numbers don't lie. We're 21-8, and while we’re the first to acknowledge we haven’t had a great month, that’s the best club record since the Sydney Olympics,” Kelley said.

“It's only the fifth time, in 44 years, that we've had twenty or more wins, and we've only had 21 wins twice, and Mike Wells has owned that.

“I think [the negativity] goes back to the coaching switch that we made a couple of years ago. We had our reasons, and we stayed appropriately professional and confidential about what those were. But I think a lot of people aren't coping with the fact that Mike's had a standout year and clearly is the right man for the job.”

Kelley reiterated Wells has full support.

“Thousand per cent [Mike has our support]. There's no way that we would do to any coach, let alone to Mike, who has that record, countenance any form of change or switch.

“We obviously address challenges and issues when we meet, but there's never a hint that those meetings are anything more than addressing what's been a challenging period on the court.

“We're a very solid organisation here. It really irritates people who have had a crack at us for much of the last decade to see the success of the 36ers ... Our objective this year was to go close to the championship, maybe to win it. We are still well on track to do that, but not just to leave it as a one-off, to actually build for the future."

Adelaide returns to the court on Thursday for a Round 20 clash in Wollongong with reigning champions Illawarra, tipping off from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.