Cal Bruton (NBL Hall Of Famer) on the 1990 Perth Wildcats Championship

1990 marked the beginning of the most exciting era in Wildcats history after businessman Kerry Stokes purchased the franchise and moved the team into the iconic 8,000-seat Perth Entertainment Centre.

The season was a turbulent one to say the least with the first controversy coming when coach Alan Black was fired and replaced by Bruton only two games into the season.

The team then limped into the playoffs in 5th place and a 17-9 record.

After knocking out the North Melbourne Giants in the Semi-Finals the team moved forward to a Grand Final match-up with a tough Brisbane Bullets squad featuring Leroy Loggins, Derek Rucker and Andre Moore.

Tens of thousands of people across Western Australia tuned in to the live coverage to see the Wildcats triumph 112–106 in Game 1 of the Grand Final series in front of a sold-out crowd of 8,200 at the Perth Entertainment Centre.

Brisbane tied the series at 1–1 after winning Game 2 in convincing fashion at home, 106–90 and in the deciding game, the Wildcats blew the game wide open in the third quarter, creating a 20 buffer to come home easily in the fourth quarter and win the first NBL championship for a Western Australian team in a 109–86 victory.

Ricky Grace was recognised as grand final MVP, averaging averaged 25 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists over the three-game series.

Topics include;

• Why Cal was asked to help the Australian Sports Museum expand their basketball history exhibits (2:00)
• How the 1990 season set the foundations for the long term success of the Perth Wildcats basketball program (8:00)
• An airline strike, injuries to James Crawford and the death of back up guard Scott Fenton sees the Wildcats start the season off in a difficult place (11:00)
• Finding Ricky Grace and bringing him into the Wildcats (14:00)
• Putting together the championship roster (19:00)
• How the 1986 Adelaide 36ers and the 1989 North Melbourne Giants influenced the way the Perth Wildcats 1990 team was recruited (26:00)
• The season starts and two games in coach Alan Black is removed as coach and Cal Bruton is made head coach despite plenty of negativity from players and fans (31:00)
• While Kendal Pinder and Jeff Allen fighting each other in the change room, James Crawford coming off the bench to try and bring him into line and Cal being thrown out of games by referees the team hold a players-only meeting where they want to see Cal Bruton removed as coach (43:00)
• A semi-final match up with the Melbourne Tigers (51:00)
• Tiny Pinder is arrested on the eve of the team's semi-final match up with the North Melbourne Giants (56:30)
• On the eve of the deciding game 3 of the semi-finals, Cal reaches out to Ken Cole to seek leadership to get past the Giants and reach the Grand Final (1:01:00)
• The NBL Grand Final sees the Perth Wildcats face Leroy Loggins and the Brisbane Bullets (1:07:00)
• Championship celebrations include the NBL trophy getting a first-class flight to Perth (1:17:00)
• Cal hopes to coach the team in 1991 to back to back titles but the team have other ideas and instead move Cal back to the General Manager position and hire Murray Arnold (1:21:00)
• The biggest learnings Cal took away from the 1990 NBL season (1:40:00)

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Listen to our previous interviews with the biggest stars in Australian Basketball, head to Aussiehoopla.com. Check out previous podcasts featuring;

Australian Basketball Legends - Luc Longley, Andrew Gaze, Shane Heal, Mark Bradtke, Leroy Loggins, David Andersen, Andrew Vlahov, CJ Bruton, Chris Anstey, Brett Maher, John Rillie, Tony Ronaldson, Brad Newley

Current NBL Stars -Donald Sloan, AJ Ogilvy, Damian Martin, Daniel Kickert, Thomas Abercrombie, Jason Cadee, Bryce Cotton, Chris Goulding, Mitch McCarron, Cam Gliddon, Anthony Drmic

Our Finest Coaching Minds - Brian Goorjian, Barry Barnes, Joey Wright, Adrian Hurley, Aaron Fearne, Rob Beveridge, Phil Smyth, Ian Stacker, Shawn Dennis, Dean Vickerman, Trevor Gleeson, Lindsey Gaze, Ken Cole, Will Weaver

NBA Stars Past & Present - Andrew Bogut, Matthew Dellavedova, Stephen Jackson, Randy Livingston, Torrey Craig, Acie Earl, Josh Childress, Reggie Smith, Todd Lichti, Ryan Broekhoff, Doug Overton

The NBL's Greatest Imports - Darryl McDonald, Ricky Grace, Derek Rucker, Leon Trimmingham, Scott Fisher, Lanard Copeland, Mike Mitchell, Darnell Mee, Isaac Burton, Adonis Jordan, Shawn Redhage, Willie Farley, Al Green, Corey "Homicide" Williams, Andre Moore, Steve Woodberry, Mike Mitchell, Dusty Rychart, Ebi Ere, Doug Overton, Kevin Lisch

And the men who run things - Larry Kestelman, Paul Maley, Vince Crivelli, Jeremy Loeliger, Chuck Harmison, Jeff Van Groningen, Bob Turner

All that and much more.

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