BIO: Kendall Stephens was born in Geelong, Victoria, in the suburb of Whittington, while his father Everette Stephens was a import with the Geelong Supercats.

The Stephens’ family settled in St. Charles, Illinois after Everette’s retirement and he attended St. Charles East High School. He was a standout basketball player for the Fighting Saints and was the number 65-ranked recruit in his class by ESPN and a four-star recruit by most major recruiting outlets. He ultimately committed to play for his father’s alma mater, Purdue University.

FAMILY: Kendall Stephens is the son of Everette Stephens who played 77 games in the NBL.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Kendall Stephens made his NBL debut with the South East Melbourne Phoenix at 24 years of age. He scored 12 points in his first game.

In 2019, Stephens joined the league’s newest franchise, the South East Melbourne Phoenix. The Phoenix signed Simon Mitchell as their first head coach and shortly after added Boomers and fringe NBA talent Mitch Creek as their marquee player. South East Melbourne then built a core group playing group with Ben Madgen (via Europe), Kyle Adnam (via Melbourne) and Adam Gibson (via Adelaide). Imports John Roberson, Tai Wesley (via Melbourne) and Devondrick Walker (via state league) were later added to round out the squad.

South East Melbourne’s first game pitted them against cross-town rivals Melbourne. In the first game between the two franchises, tagged ‘The Throwdown’, the Phoenix were able to topple United by three points (91-88) after making 12 of 23 from downtown. The team’s high-octane perimeter shooting would set the tone for the rest of the season, with the team leading the league in points per game (95.4 ppg).

The win came at a cost, however, with Tai Wesley, after scoring eight rapid points, suffering a hamstring injury in the first five minutes of the game, which saw him out of action for the next ten weeks. Import Jaye Crockett (8.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.0 steals) was brought in as an injury replacement during his absence.

Following their Round 1 victory, the Phoenix would keep it rolling, knocking over the Bullets (113-93) and the Hawks (106-102) at home, tipping off their inaugural season with a handsome 3-0 record. Despite the Phoenix taking home victories against relatively good team’s, their first real challenge came in Round 4, where they would play their first away game against Perth. Although the Wildcats’ star duo of Bryce Cotton (16 points) and Terrico White (17 points) started poorly, Perth delivered South East Melbourne their first loss (79-110), ending their season-opening winning streak.

After their trouncing in Western Australia, victories would become a rarity. The Phoenix would go down to the likes of the 36ers, the Kings and twice to United, and after coming into the mid-way point of the season, the Phoenix was the definition of average at this point.

Sitting just outside the top four with a record of six wins and six losses. It was also around this time the Phoenix chose to move on from import Devondrick Walker (7.4 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.9 assists), who, after suffering a fracture in his left foot playing in a Perth pre-season game two years earlier, wasn’t able to deliver the production he was able to beforehand. Keith Benson (5.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks) was signed as his replacement and thought he was a much bigger body, wasn’t able to add much more to the stat sheet.

While South East Melbourne were forced to rely on Creek (20.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.2 steals) and star import John Roberson (20.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 5.5 assists), the next ten rounds would prove to be anything but smooth.

Across the next 16 matchups for South East Melbourne they would go on to accumulate a lacklustre 3 wins and 13 losses, while also finishing their campaign on a eight-game losing streak. With 20 rounds of basketball completed, the Phoenix (9-19) would finish second last.

As a rookie, Stephens would see action in 26 games, averaging 4.4 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 0.5 assists.

2020/21
South East Melbourne looked to improve on their debut season, with coach Simon Mitchell providing franchise player Mitch Creek with some additional talent. Cam Gliddon and Reuben Te Rangi (both via Brisbane) were added to help spread the floor, providing more room for Creek to operate inside, and rookie Kiwi duo Izayah Mauriohooho-Le’afa and Mike Karena came on as development players.

Phoenix fans celebrated when Yanni Wetzell, who was on a number of NBA radars after a standout career at the University of San Diego State, only to see him exercise his European out clause and signed with German team Riesen Ludwigsburg. Imports Ben Moore and Keifer Sykes were then added to finalise the roster.

Due to COVID-19, the NBL was forced to postpone its season and start in January 2021, with the majority of players also asked to reduce their salaries due to the financial pressure caused by the pandemic. The impacts of Covid also created passport complications for Wetzell, who spun 180 and returned to play for the Phoenix after all.

Wetzell (11.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.6 assists) quickly established himself as one of the best young bigs in the competition, and together with Creek (18.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists), who led the team in scoring, and rebounds, provided a powerful one-two punch for the Phoenix.

South East Melbourne evolved into the highest-scoring team in the NBL, getting high-level production from Keifer Sykes (14.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 5.0 assists), Kyle Adnam (12.0 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists), Cameron Gliddon (10.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.5 steals) and Moore (10.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.1 assists), who would all top score for the team in different games.

Mid-season, the Phoenix had the opportunity to add Australian Boomers forward Ryan Broekhoff to the roster, who had spent the season sitting on the sidelines, rehabbing a fractured leg and hoping to sign another NBA deal. Broekhoff (7.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 0.8 steals) played out the last 19 games for the Phoenix, signing as an injury replacement player for Dane Pineau, his arrival also pushing development player Mike Karena out of the rotation.

South East Melbourne (19-17) finished in fourth place and reached the NBL playoffs for the first time in their second NBL season. They would go on to face Melbourne (28-8) in a semifinal series, played in empty arenas in Sydney, with both team’s unable to play in Melbourne due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The team split the first two games of the series playing at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, with Creek (26 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists) leading the team in scoring in game two before returning home to play the decider at home. Leading United by as much as 15 points in the second quarter of the final game of the semi-final series (32-15), they gave away a turnaround of almost 30 points to finish 10-point losers (84-74). The Phoenix’s rebounding deficiencies (second last in the league for rebounds) were a major reason for the loss, combined with a season-high scoring effort from United’s big man Jock Landale (27 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks), who shot 11-13 from the floor and a perfect 3/3 from beyond, didn’t make things any easier.

Creek (19 points) and Reuben Te Rangi, who delivered a season high scoring night (22 points), were the key contributors for South East Melbourne in their final game of the season.

Stephens (1.6 points, 0.5 rebounds, and 0.2) would see limited opportunities to play during the season, appearing in only 13 games.

Kendall Stephens played two seasons the South East Melbourne Phoenix. He averaged 3.4 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.4 assists in 39 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.