It was always going to be an uncomfortable homecoming. Kendric Davis and the Adelaide 36ers had a brief but tumultuous tenure. It was his first season in the league and his output made him an immediate star. The 36ers had found their first legitimate import point guard since Jerome Randle. Forming a formidable partnership with Montrezl Harrell, Davis led the 36ers in both points and assists to guide them to their first postseason appearance in seven years (where they lost in the play-in game to the South East Melbourne Phoenix). He finished as the runner-up in Most Valuable Player voting which was remarkable for an import in his first professional stint overseas.

Not all of it was pretty though. Davis frequently clashed with head coach Mike Wells in disagreements that were publicly visible or widely alleged. He and Harrell received suspensions for their involvement in an altercation with courtside goons during a game against Melbourne United. Davis was outspoken, confident and brash.

Ultimately, he was gone. It will remain a tale of two sides as basketball conflicts are rarely ever cleared up. All that we will know is that Davis feels like he was wronged by the 36ers and the 36ers feel like they did nothing wrong to Davis. It has been an unfortunately public feud; the 36ers are proud of their “culture reset” after Davis’ departure and Harrell was backing the 36ers with words that would become poignantly ironic once he found himself also upset by the team. Whatever conflict was apparently in existence led to Davis not re-signing and instead departing to the Sydney Kings.

Davis’ departure should have been an insurmountable loss for the 36ers. Their last superstar import point guard was Randle who peaked in 2017. It has always been a difficult position for the 36ers to recruit although those real standout players are rare for even other teams to acquire. What made it worse was Davis joining the Sydney Kings who are star-studded enough as is. With his competitive nature, Davis would have known that the 36ers would be lost without him and go back to their meaningless meandering in irrelevance.

They then signed the player who had bested Davis in MVP voting to earn his fifth clinching of the award. Bryce Cotton was both the 36ers’ biggest signing in history and the league’s biggest transfer in history. Davis could not even relish knowing that the 36ers had signed someone worse; empirically, he is the only one player in the world who absolutely is better than Davis (as per the 2024–25 NBL MVP voting results!!).

The first match-up between the two MVP contenders was expected to be major; it was even more so because of the friction that now existed between them. Davis was coming back to Adelaide to make a point. Cotton had both the symbolism of an award to defend and the pride of a team to defend.

The boos reigned down on Davis as the game began. This was the star turned into a black hole. He could not make a media appearance without expressing his displeasure with the lowly Adelaide 36ers — after everything he had achieved with them! He found his scoring touch early to start silencing them. Cotton tried to get going too to show what he could do but he found himself being increasingly stifled by the Kings utilising oversized defenders. While Davis was finding a familiar basket to easy to reach, Cotton could not look past the strangling defence of Bul Kuol. As the game continued, the boos became less and less. The 36ers were blown out 79–103. Davis scored 22 points. Cotton scored 7 points.

The target that Davis had on his back entering Adelaide was tremendous. Little did anyone know that he had the entirety of the Kings’ supporting staff in the way.

“My teammates had my back. Goorj… man, he made sure they had my back. Like, we had a talk. Nobody comes in here and fucks with me. Straight like that. Goorj had my back and my teammates — like, unbelievable — had my back. My brother Kouat. I mean, everybody. Delly, X, Bul. I go down… everybody. Even the ones — Keli — that didn’t play. Keli said, ‘I’m your bodyguard.’ I want to make it about my coaches. They had us prepared. My teammates had my back and, yeah, we needed this one. … They got my back. They got my back. My teammates got my back.”

Don’t consider this to be the conclusion to the drama. Now the tables turn and a different side has a greater point to prove. They will be back.