OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Adelaide 36ers, the seventh-place squad in Australia's 10-team National Basketball League last season, boarded a 6 a.m. commercial flight on Sept. 28, when a few players sat in business class and the rest of the roster and staff squeezed into coach.
The team made connections in Sydney and Los Angeles before finally landing in Phoenix 19 hours later, right around lunchtime the same day, as odd as that sounds. They grabbed a quick bite and headed straight for the Arizona State campus for practice, preparing for a three-game American visit and what they hope will be the franchise's first winning season since 2017-18, an NBL campaign that the 36ers will start a bit later than their rivals due to their preseason dates against NBA foes.