BIO: Cortez Groves was born in Kansas City, Missouri (USA).

NBL EXPERIENCE

Cortez Groves made his NBL debut with the Wollongong Hawks at 24 years of age. He scored 36 points in his first game.

His 36 points on debut was also his season high for 2002/03. Groves led the Hawks to a third place finish in the regular season and averaged 19.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists. He led the team past the Townsville Crocodiles in the Qualifying Finals in two straight games notching up 18 points in game one and 27 points in Game 2. The Hawks were then soundly defeated in the semifinals by the Perth Wildcats who limited Groves to a meagre 8.5 points per game on 6 from 30 shooting (20%) in the two game series. Groves would return to the USA at the end of the season.

ILLAWARRA HAWKS
2005/06
Groves returned to Australia two years later for the second stint with the Hawks in 2005/06, a year where the again finished third on the ladder in the regular season before being eliminated by the Perth Wildcats in the playoffs. Groves averaged 24 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 5.7 assists and was named the Hawks club MVP.

2006/07
Groves was re-signed for the 2006/07 NBL season and looked strong during the preseason where he was named in the NBL’s All-Star Five during the NBL Blitz Preseason tournament. Groves strong start continued when he was named NBL player of the week in round four after a weekend where he racked up 20 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals against Singapore and then 30 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 1 block against the South Dragons two nights later.

Groves saw his production drop off towards the end of the season, after a strong start averaging 24.1 points from September to December 2006 he managed only 18.8 points per game across January and February 2007 and as a result the Hawks finished in ninth place and missed the NBL playoffs. Groves finished with averages of 22.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists.

SOUTH DRAGONS
2007/08
In 2007 Groves joined the South Dragons as a replacement for import guard Kavossy Franklin. Franklin, who was not offered a contract to return to the Dragons, swapped places with Groves and signed with Wollongong.

In 2007/08 Groves averaged 18.3 points and 2.4 rebounds, and helped guide the Dragons to a third place finish in the regular season with a 5-25 record.

2008/09
The Dragons retained five players heading into their third season. Ingles, the blue-collar Matt Burston, wing Nathan Herbert, the naturalised Nick Horvath, and import Cortez Groves. The demise of the Sydney Kings saw legendary coach Brian Goorjian open to offers, and the Dragons quickly offered to bring him to Melbourne and replace Shane Heal. Talented point guard Adam Gibson also joined the roster after his team (Brisbane) also exited the league. Other new additions saw Tremmell Darden signed on as the team’s second import, Mika Vukona (via New Zealand) was brought in to add a new found physicality to the squad and Rhys Carter (via West Sydney), who due to having no NBL team’s interested in signing him, asked Goorjian if he could train with the team to keep in shape and his efforts were enough for Goorjian to offer him the backup point guard spot.

The season began with a slow start, a loss to Cairns and then Townsville saw the Dragons start the year with a 2-2 record. Then came a 8 game winning streak before Cortez Groves, who had averaged 12.1 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists for the season, suffered a injury which led to his release. He was replaced by former NBA forward Donta Smith and the Dragons would go on to win the NBL championship but he remained with a part of the team throughout the season.

ADELAIDE 36ERS
2009/10
After completing his rehab Groves signed a deal to play with Adelaide in what would be a disaster of a season. The team failed to re-sign Luke Schenscher and Aaron Bruce but would add Matthew Burston and import guard John Gilchrist as the team said farewell to long serving club captain Brett Maher who retired after playeingin 525 games and captaining the club to 3 NBL championships (1998, 1998/99, 2001/02).

In his third season with the club, Adam Ballinger (17.6 points, 5.3 rebounds) became team captain and went on to lead the team in scoring. Gilchrist (16.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists) led the team in assists and finished second in scoring, while Burston (9.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 0.5 assists)led the team in rebounding in his first season with the club. Groves would contribute 9.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 3.4 assists but his injury seemed to have impacted his abilities significantly resulting in him scoring his fewest points in a season across his NBL career, resulting in his time with Adelaide being his last in the NBL.

Groves struggled to give the 36ers much at all after injury, which seemed to have impacted his abilities quite significantly, resulting in him scoring his fewest points in a season across his NBL career (9.8 points) and his time with Adelaide being his last in the NBL. As a coach, Scott Ninnis seemed out of his depth, and the year concluded with the 36ers finishing on the bottom of the NBL ladder for the first time in their history with a 10–18 record. Following the club’s worst ever season, Ninnis was sacked as coach and replaced by former AIS coach Marty Clarke for the 2010/11 NBL season.

Cortez Groves played six seasons across three NBL teams. This included the Wollongong Hawks, South Dragons and Adelaide 36ers. He averaged 18.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in 164 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (815 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.