NICKNAME/S: Lightning

BIO: Brad Rosen was born in Sydney (NSW) where he began playing with the Maccabi basketball club at five years of age. He later joined the Sydney Comets representative side at age 16.

Rosen was a talented young guard and in 1992 made the Comets ABA team. Within two years, he was called up to the Sydney Kings to play in a Preseason tournament in Canberra.

The following season he joined the Kings as part of their main roster.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Brad Rosen made his NBL debut with the Sydney Kings at 23 years of age. He scored 10 points in his first game.

During his time with the Kings Brad Rosen established himself as a reliable and consistent point-guard and a fan favourite at the Kingdome.

After a great start to the 1994 season, the Kings collapsed during the second half of the year with the team’s young roster felt to be the cause. Veteran talent Phil Smyth (Adelaide), Justin Withers (Canberra) and import Bruce Bolden (SE Melbourne), who would replace fan favourite Mario Donaldson, would bring the experience required in spades.

The Kings starting lineup had increased from the average age of 28 to 31, which meant although they had added a ton of experience, this roster would only have one or two years to make it count.

The season started with a narrow 85-86 loss to Bolden’s former team, the Magic, before a up-and-down season, where the Kings defeated a number of league’s top team’s but failed to close out games against those at the bottom of the ladder. Sydney would start the season with a 3-6 record, which included wins over Perth and North Melbourne, who would finish first and third, respectively, but suffered back-to-back losses to Canberra (who would finish tenth) and lost games to Townsville (finished 12th) and Gold Coast (finished 13th).

Leon Trimmingham (27.5 points, 11.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 2.1 steals and 2.2 blocks) was named Kings team MVP after leading the team in scoring, rebounds, steals and blocks as Bolden (20.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals) and captain Damian Keogh (14.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.6 steals) provided the additional scoring power. Sydney finished the season in tenth place with a record of 10-16 and failed to reach the playoffs.

Rosen averaged 4.8 points, 0.4 rebounds, and 1.6 assists for the season.

1996
Sydney went through a period of major change prior to the 1996 season. From 1989 to 1995, the Kings had been coached by Bob Turner and had established themselves as a powerhouse franchise, particularly off the court. Corporate sponsorship through global juggernauts like Coca-Cola and Reebok had assisted in the enormous growth of the brand, resulting in numerous sell-outs at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

But in 1995, the Kings struggled on the floor and failed to make the playoffs. And for a club that every year expected to not only make the playoffs but contend for a championship, that wasn’t good enough.

Bob Turner was replaced as coach by Alan Black, who had taken the Illawarra Hawks to the playoffs in 1993, 1994 and 1995 and was named NBL Coach of the Year in 1993 and 1995. Two foundation members of the Sydney Kings – Mark Dalton and Damian Keogh – were released from the club, as were a number of other players from the unsuccessful 1995 squad.

Black brought Hawks MVP Melvin Thomas along with him to the Kings and signed former Charlotte Hornets guard Tony Bennett as the team’s two imports. 25-year-old Stephen Whitehead (via Melbourne) joined the team, looking for more playing opportunities after serving a ‘apprenticeship’ behind stars Andrew Gaze and Lanard Copeland. But the key addition this year was owner Mike Wrublewski convincing Australia’s Boomers guard Shane Heal to move to Sydney and become the face of the franchise and captain of the team. Wrublewski even had the Kings swap their traditional purple and gold uniforms in favour of a black pin-striped design as a way to signify a new direction for Sydney in the hopes of re-energising a fan base.

Some addition by subtraction saw the Kings release Bennett during the pre-season and replace him with the high-flying excitement machine, Isaac ‘Ice’ Burton, out of Arizona State University. Burton (24.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.1 steals) and Heal (23.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists) formed a deadly combination in the backcourt. Up front, Melvin Thomas (20.9 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.9 blocks) and Bruce Bolden (16.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.1 blocks) were a unstoppable tandem, with both men adding toughness, rebounding and a deadly ability to knock down the midrange jumper.

Alongside the team’s stars, Rosen also added 4.0 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists, rounding out a incredibly fun roster to watch.

Right from the start, they got the old Kingdome rocking, with Heal dropping 20 points in the fourth quarter of a unforgettable comeback win in the season opener at home against the North Melbourne Giants.

That set the scene for a incredible first two months, with Sydney jumping to a 11-3 record, winning their first eight games at home and leading the NBL standings. In one amazing stretch, the Kings won nine straight games, averaging 120.4 points per game over that span.

Those wins included a blowout win over the Gold Coast (131-112), which saw Shane Heal (35 points and 7 assists) and Melvin Thomas (26 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots) putting up big numbers. A nail biter over Perthat home (122-121), where three players scored at least 20 points, and Thomas finished just two assists shy of a triple-double, and win over NSW rival Illawarra (128-106), where Isaac Burton (32 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists) dominated both ends of the court.

Unfortunately, a mid-season injury to Heal slowed the team down, but when Shane returned, he led the Kings to wins in four of their last five games, taking them to a fifth-place 16-10 record and a playoff appearance.

Sydney (16-10) faced off against Canberra (16-10) in the Quarter-finals, behind import duo Robert Rose and Darnell Mee. On the back of a season-high scoring night, Stephen Whitehead (24 points and 5 rebounds) surprised everyone in game one, winning by 24 points in the opening game (113-89). The Cannons would get a huge boost from their supporting cast in game two, with Jamie Pearlman (29 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists), David Close (25 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists) and Ray Borner (21 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals) as well as Mee (29 points, 7 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks) all scoring over 20 points. Rose (11 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists) finished just shy of a triple-double with Canberra defeating Sydney by 47 points (146-99). The deciding game saw the stars of the series come out firing, with Canberra’s Rose (23 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists) and Mee (20 points, 3 rebounds, and 8 assists) going head-to-head with Sydney’s Heal (21 points, 3 rebounds, and 5 assists) and Burton (25 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 steals) but it was the team’s supporting casts the made the difference. Outside of Heal and Bruton, the Kings managed to score a mere 43 points, while the Cannons remaining roster tallied 58 points, with Borner (18 points and 7 rebounds), Blakemore (17 points and 6 rebounds), and Pearlman (17 points and 3 assists) all having big games. Canberra closed out the series with the win (101-89) and headed into a semi final against Melbourne.

While the Kings were unable to progress past the first round of the playoffs, it was still a season to remember.. Sydney averaged 108.8 points per game in the regular season – the most points scored per game in a regular season in franchise history – and also set team records that have never been broken for regular season field goal percentage (51.6%) and three-point percentage (41.2%).

Burton led the entire league in three-point percentage, was third in the NBL in steals and would go on to become the first Sydney King to win NBL Defensive Player of the Year. Heal would finish among the league’s best when he earned selection in the All-NBL Second Team.

After their 1996 elimination, the Kings would not make the NBL playoffs again until 2001, when they made it to the first round before being eliminated by the Townsville Crocodiles.

1997
A year into the Kings rebuilding around Boomers guard Shane Heal, a incredible 1996 Olympic campaign saw him sign a contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves, leaving Sydney with a huge hole to fill. The decision was made to sign up-and-coming guard Aaron Trahair, who had shown a lot of promise playing in Perth despite being stuck behind legendary guard Ricky Grace. The Kings also added Cameron Dickinson (via Townsville) to help cover the perimeter shooting lost by Heal’s departure.

With Hobart, Geelong, and Gold Coast exiting the league after the 1996 season and the talent from those rosters distributed among the league’s remaining team’s, the 1997 season was one of the most competitive in NBL history. This, combined with the unexpected loss of Shane Heal, saw the Kings struggle, losing three of their first four games. Much of the responsibility would be thrown onto import Isaac Burton (20.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 3.0 steals), who led both the team in scoring and the league in steals for the second year in a row. His all-around brilliance was on full display when he recorded a near quadruple-double when Burton recorded 44 points, nine rebounds, eight assists & seven steals, hitting 15 of 22 from the field in a 123-107 win over the Illawarra Hawks.

Melvin Thomas (18.9 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.6 steals) led the team in rebounds in his second year in Sydney. 26-year-old Stephen Whitehead would blossom into the team’s third-leading scorer (12.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists) and a young Matthew Nielsen (9.9 points and 4.9 rebounds in 27 minutes per game), who had been a training player with the Kings since 1995, claimed Rookie of the Year honours.

The Kings would lose their last three games, finishing with a 12-18 record and second-last (tenth) on the ladder with Rosen averaging 5.1 points, 1 rebounds, and 2 assists per game, emerging as the Kings best option at the point-guard position following a injury to starting point guard Aaron Trahair. Coach Alan Black moved Rosen into the starting lineup in August and he responded shortly after with the best game of his NBL career.

On Sunday, 7th September against North Melbourne, when he totalled a career-high 22 points as well as a season-high five assists in a 117-96 Kings loss.

Other notable performances in 1997 included a 10 point, 4 rebound, 2 steal performance against Newcastle on July 18th, as well as recording 7 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists in a return game against the Falcons on 15th September.

Brad’s field-goal percentage lifted to over 50% for the first time in 1997, a feat which also saw him among the league leagers for field goal percentage by a guard.

Rosen’s lightening quick speed allowed him to blow by defenders on his way to the basket and play a key role on the defensive end.

Rosen was also popular within Sydney due to a his appearance in a well-known TV advertisement for Toohey’s.

1998
After a single season in the NBA, Heal returned to the Kings in 1998. With two years remaining on his NBA deal, Heal left Minnesota, citing the lack of playing time behind Stephon Marbury, disliking the cold weather and suffering a calf injury the week before the opening round, which would require him to earn his way back into the rotation and returned to Australia.

Since Heal’s departure in 1996, the team had undergone a number of changes. Bill Tomlinson replaced coach Alan Black, imports Melvin Thomas and Isaac Burton were replaced by Matt Nover, a former NCAA Final Four centre better known as ‘Ricky Roe’ from the movie Blue Chips and a 19-year-old forward named Stephen Jackson, who became the youngest import signing in NBL history.

Jackson had been the leading scorer in the 1996 McDonald’s All-American Game on a team that included future NBA All-Stars Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O’Neal and Richard Hamilton. He’d been headed to the University of Arizona but was ruled academically ineligible, throwing him into the ’97 NBA Draft (while the Wildcat’s won the NCAA title without him), where Phoenix selected him in the second round. He failed to make the Suns roster and, instead, chose to play his first year as a pro in Australia.

The Kings had built themselves around a young core of Aussie talent, which included Aaron Trahair, Matthew Nielsen, Stephen Whitehead and Scott McGregor.

Nover (7.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 0.9 assists) and Jackson (6.0 points, 0.5 rebounds, and 1 assist) got off to rocky starts, combing for a total of 36 points across the team’s first three games. Jackson, who would later average 20+ points per game across numerous seasons in the NBA, had become the first import in NBL history to go scoreless in his debut game. Nonetheless, the Kings were rolling, with wins over Canberra, Newcastle and Melbourne firing them to a undefeated start.

In Round 3, the team travelled to Adelaide looking to keep their steak alive when, late in the third quarter, disaster struck for Jackson. Attempting to block 36ers’ star Kevin Brooks, Jackson landed awkwardly, broke his foot and would miss the remainder of the season.

In round 6, even with Aaron Trahair dropping 40 points on 13 of 16 shooting, the Kings lost to Wollongong (99-108) and shortly after released Nover. Former King Dave Simmons, who had been released by Newcastle, and former Sacramento King’s big man Evers Burns were signed as import replacements.

After six games, Simmons (6.5 points and 6.3 rebounds) was released as the Kings made room to sign former North Carolina State point guard Kelsey Weems and allow Shane Heal and Aaron Trahair to play more minutes at shooting guard.

Through the multiple import changes and roster juggling, the Kings dropped ten of their next twelve games, missed the playoffs and finished in the tenth spot (12-18). Heal (20.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists) would lead the team in scoring while rising star Nielsen continued to improve, boosting his numbers from 9.9 points and 4.9 rebounds in 27 minutes per game to 16.4 points and 8.3 rebounds in 34 minutes per game. During their short NBL stints, Weems (20.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.5 steals) filled the stat sheet during his 12 games, while Burns (16.5 points and 9.4 rebounds) on the other hand, wasn’t quite the player he was in the NBA. Jackson went on to play 858 NBA games, winning a championship with San Antonio in 2003.

Rosen finished the season averaging 3.7 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 1.2 assists across 24 games.

1998/99
Rosen’s efforts saw him named the Kings team captain for the 1998/99 season. Rosen averaged 3.6 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists and was a part of the Kings squad which finished in tenth place with a record of 9-17.

Rosen was voted the Kings most inspirational player in 1997 and 1998.

Brad Rosen played five seasons the Sydney Kings. He averaged 4.1 points, 1 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 99 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (833 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.