FAMILY: Alan’s son Stephen Black also played 298 games in the NBL.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Alan Black made his NBL debut with the Nunawading Spectres at 21 years of age. He scored 14 points in his first game.

In what was NBL’s inaugural season, the league chose to simply have the two top team’s play for in the league’s first championship game. This season the Spectres were led offensively buy Bill Palmer and Gary Fox who both averaged 17.8 points per game. Nunawading, who had finished the season by winning their last 3 games, finished with the second-best record (13 wins, 5 losses) but would miss out on playing in the Grand Final with Canberra having finished with +2 points in their head-to-head matchups (1-1). Canberra was awarded second place and went on to lose to St Kilda, the league’s first championship team.

Black averaged 12.5 points across 18 games.

1980
In 1980 Black averaged 10.3 points and helped guide the Spectres to a fourth place finish in the regular season with a 14-9 record.

1981
The 1981 season saw Black average 11.3 points and play a key role in helping the Spectres to a fourth place finish in the regular season with a 13-9 record. He was a member of the Nunawading side that lost to Launceston Casino City in the Grand Final that season.

1982
During the 1982 season Black averaged 12.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 3 assists, helping the Spectres finish with a record of 19-7 and a third place finish.

1983
During the 1983 season, Black averaged 11.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 3.6 assists and was a part of the Spectres squad that finished in fifth place with a record of 15-7.

1984
This season for the Spectres was notable for the efforts of Dean Uthoff (20.1 points, 18.5 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game) who would set a all-time NBL record for rebounds per game and Nunawading junior talent Damian Keogh (20 points, 4 rebounds, and 7.9 assists), who delivered a breakout season.

Black averaged 13 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 3.2 assists for the season.

Led by coach Barry Barnes, the Spectres to a record of 14 wins, 9 losses in 1984 which saw them finish in fourth place in the NBL’s Western Division. Due to the size of the league (the NBL featured 17 team’s at this time), the NBL finals series in 1984 consisted of the elimination-style divisional finals, two semi-final games, and one championship-deciding grand final.

Nunawading would defeat Adelaide, 108–101 in their Elimination Final before losing to Geelong in the Qualifying Finals, 91–115, in the next game.

1985
In 1985 Black averaged 15.6 points and 3.9 rebounds, and helped guide the Spectres to a third place finish in the regular season with a 19-7 record.

PERTH WILDCATS
1986
After seven seasons with the Spectres, Black made the move west in 1986 to play for the Perth Wildcats. The Wildcats had retained almost their entire roster and looked to improve on their 13-win season, which had set a club record. The only changes being Glen Dunsmore and Robbie Dempster being replaced with local guard guard Trevor Torrance and 29-year-old Black from Nunawading.

Perth started the season with five wins and five losses before losing import Roland Brooks (18.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.3 steals) to a season-ending injury.

During the 1986 season, local businessman Bob Williams was invited to attend a game by the state government. Williams agreed and, after one game, liked what he saw and signed on as the club’s major sponsor. His company ‘Interstuct’ appeared across the front of the team’s uniform. At the end of the 1986 season, Bob Williams was called to a meeting by the WA state government. Williams was told that the WABF was bankrupt and that there was to be no Government assistance. Unless Bob Williams bought the licence from the state government, the Wildcats would cease to exist in the NBL. Williams left the meeting not only as the major sponsor but as the Wildcats, and the NBL’s first private owner and president of the WABF.

Losing Brooks, the team’s second leading scorer and rebounder, proved too much to recover from, resulting in Perth struggling to be competitive against the rest of the league and finishing in twelfth place (8–18).

The team was led by Dan Clausen (21.3 points, 14 rebounds, and 2.1 assists), captain Mike Ellis (16.2 points and 6.6 assists) and newcomer Alan Black (12.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists) delivering his best season to date.

Losing Brooks, the team’s second leading scorer and rebounder, proved too much to recover from, resulting in Perth struggling to be competitive against the rest of the league and finishing in twelfth place (8–18).

1987
Many changes occurred in 1987. Most significantly, the team moved from the small confines of Perry Lakes Stadium to what was known in those days as the Perth Superdrome (now HBF Stadium). The Superdrome was capable of housing 5,000 people, compared to the 800-seat Perry Lakes Stadium. New owner Bob Williams moved quickly in turning the Wildcats’ basketcase to contenders, a team who, at that point, had never had a winning season. His first move was to recruit Cal Bruton as player/coach and provide him with a budget to ‘build me a team’, which Bruton set to work on immediately.

Bruton recruited star imports James Crawford (Canberra) and Kendal Pinder (Sydney), who would become one of the league’s best frontcourt duos. Bruton also bought a professionalism to the team demanded by their new owner. For example, the players wore suits with the team’s’ logo in public.

The new talent paid off immediately as the Wildcats’ recorded their best season to date.

While Bruton (16.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.6 steals) juggled the role of player/coach, he also led the team in assists. Alongside him, the ‘rim rocking’ Crawford (33.4 points, 11.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.9 steals and 2.3 blocks) would lead the team in scoring, steals and blocks while leading the league in field goal percentage (61%). Let’s just say once the ‘Alabama Slamma’ arrived in Perth, getting a 4,200 basketball fans into the stadium was ‘easy work’. This season included Crawford’s 57 points against the Tigers, which remains the highest score ever by a Perth Wildcats player. Pinder (23.5 points, 13.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.4 steals) would lead the team in rebounds, and captain Mike Ellis (9.4 points, 4.5 assists, and 1.2 steals) defended the best guard on every opposition team. Black also contributed 10.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 4.6 assists as Perth finished the regular season in fourth place (19-7), reaching the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

Crawford, who would be selected to the All-NBL First Team (his fourth selection), led Perth past Canberra in the elimination finals, Adelaide 36ers in the semifinals and despite having never made the playoffs, the Wildcats found themselves in the Grand Final series against Brisbane.

With the series featuring future Hall of Fame members on both squads and two coaches who couldn’t stand each other (Brian Kerle versus Cal Bruton), the Grand Final was can’t miss action.

Game one saw Perth’s ‘run, stun and have some fun’ style of play, which Bruton had implemented, outclassed by Brisbane’s solid fundamentals. In front of a sell-out home crowd, the Bullets defeated the Wildcat’s by just one point. Two days later, the series moved to Brisbane, where the Bullets continued their winning ways, taking home the championship in two games.

1988
After a run that saw the Wildcats reach both the playoffs and the Grand Final for the first time in 1987, Perth retained almost their entire roster and looked to go one step further. Star players James Crawford, Kendal Pinder, Mike Ellis and player/coach Cal Bruton all returned for (what was expected to be) a even better result than 1988.

The team even got stronger on paper by allowing Craig Fitzsimmons to move to Geelong and replacing him with Westside Melbourne star Paul Kuiper and signing up-and-coming talent Scott Fenton to replace the retiring Glenn Ellis.

Crawford (26.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.9 blocks) filled the stat sheet every game, leading the team in points, steals and blocks. Pinder (21.3 points, 11.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.0 steals) again led the team in rebounds as Bruton (15.2 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.3 steals) and Ellis (7.8 points, 4.6 assists and 1.6 steals) shared the ball handling responsibilities.

Kuiper (15.5 points and 7.4 rebounds) made a immediate impact while 22-year-old Trevor Torrence had a breakout season with his production jumping from 6.2 points in 18 minutes per game to 12.4 points in 27 minutes per game. Additionally, Black added 3.7 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 3.1 assists over the course of the year as well.

As it had always been in previous seasons, Perth was a tough matchup at home (9-3 record) while struggling to win on the road (4-8 record). They finished on 13 wins and 11 losses and in the sixth spot on the ladder, taking the final playoff seed.

Perth came out firing to start the postseason, first eliminating Leroy Loggins and the Brisbane Bullets in the first round and then winning the first game of the semi finals 108-105) against the North Melbourne Giants. The Giants, who featured Scott Fisher and Tim Dillon on the roster, one of the best big man import duos of all time, would prove too much for Perth this season. They returned to Melbourne for the remaining two semi-final games and defeated the Wildcat’s in back-to-back games, ending the Wildcats’ playoff run prematurely.

Black retired from playing at the end of the 1988 season.

Alan Black played ten seasons in the NBL, playing for both the Nunawading Spectres and the Perth Wildcats. He averaged 11.3 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in 245 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (817 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.