Whyalla born and bred Chris Blakemore began training with the Adelaide 36ers in 1990 before spending two seasons at the Australian Institute of Sport and signing a rookie contract with the team in 1993. He played three seasons with the 36ers (1993-1995), a period where the team saw a young core of Blakemore, Brett Maher, Scott Ninnis and Brett Wheeler develop into a playing group that ushered in a new era of success in Adelaide.
Blakemore would win Rookie of the Year in his first season and the league’s Most Improved Player in his second season.
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This early 1990’s also saw highly regarded college coach Mike Dunlap hire to coach the team, an era renown for a lot of wins on the court and issues off the court.
The team finished in fourth place with a 19–8 record in 1994 and made it all the way to the NBL Grand Final. Despite the success, Dunlap’s reputation for developing young players saw Adelaide legend Phil Smyth forced out and sign with the Sydney Kings.
In 1995 the 36er’s season ended with Blakemore elbowing Perth’s Martin Catalini and nearly causing a melee which then led to the departures of Blakemore and Robert Rose, who headed to Canberra and Mike McKay who signed with Brisbane as a result.
Dunlap coached one more season, another successful year on-court (the team finished with a record of 16-10) which culminated in a semi-final exit courtesy of the South East Melbourne Magic but at season’s end the Dunlap experiment was deemed a failure and the team replaced him with Dave Claxton in 1997.
Blakemore played his remaining NBL games with the Cannons before injuries forced him to call it quits at only 23 years of age.
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Podcast topics include;
- Early beginnings in Whyalla, SA (2:00)
- The college football scholarship that could have been (5:00)
- Choosing between the AIS, NBL and NCAA as a pathway to becoming a professional (7:00)
- His rookie of the year season in 1993 (11:00)
- Adelaide 36ers 1994 run to the NBL Grand Final (15:00)
- The Mike Dunlap era in Adelaide (17:00)
- A re-built 36ers squad for the 1995 season falls short (25:00)
- The elbow to Martin Cattalini left 15 stitches, got him suspended from the playoffs and saw the 36ers eliminated from the playoffs (30:00)
- Leaving Adelaide to play with the Cannons in 1996 (32:00)
- Blakemore’s attempted comeback in 1998 with the Brisbane Bullets which ultimately didn’t pan out (38:00)
- How he feels about his decision to retire looking back at it (40:30)
- The mental hurdles he faced and biggest challenges (42:00)
- Rob Rose and Mike Dunlap, why didn’t these two see eye to eye? (51:00)
- The highlights of his career (53:00)
All of this and a whole lot more…
