Adelaide 36ers coach Wright fined by NBL

Wednesday, 12 September 2018:

Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright has been fined $1500 by the NBL for an incident involving a match official during the off-season in June.

The American, who was voted the NBL's coach of the year in 2016-17, was also given a one game suspended sentence which will take effect if Wright breaches the NBL code of conduct during the next two seasons.

It is believed the punishments follow an email exchange between Wright and NBL referees' boss Scott Butler.

Wright had previously been fined $5000 for comments he made about the officiating after Adelaide were beaten in game one of the last NBL finals series against Melbourne United in March.

Melbourne ultimately claimed the crown in the decisive fifth game.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the NBL said Wright breached the code of conduct though did not elaborate.

"The NBL expects high standards of behaviour from all players, coaches and officials and breaches of its code of conduct will result in sanctions," the statement said.

"If Wright is found to breach the code of conduct at any stage prior to the end of the 2019-20 season the one game suspension will take immediate effect in addition to any new penalty imposed by the NBL."

Adelaide open their 2018-19 NBL campaign against the Perth Wildcats on October 11.






AAP