{"id":903608,"date":"2026-09-24T10:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903608\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:24:14","slug":"goosebumps-five-time-champion-prepares-for-emotional-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903608\/","title":{"rendered":"“Goosebumps”: Five-time champion prepares for emotional return"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are countless storylines from Thursday’s mouthwatering blockbuster between Perth and Adelaide at RAC Arena.<\/p>\n

From Bryce Cotton’s 300th game in the Hungry Jack’s NBL<\/a> to Perth’s point guard woes<\/a>, all eyes will be on this fixture between the two arch-rivals.<\/p>\n

Another layer of this exciting fixture is that it marks Trevor Gleeson’s first game back in Perth since joining the Adelaide 36ers as Head Coach.<\/p>\n

Before coaching overseas, the 58-year-old had one of the most successful stints with Perth in League history, winning five championships and two Coach of the Year awards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now just hours before he returns to RAC Arena and plays in front of the Red Army for the first time, Gleeson has opened up about a place he put his ‘heart and soul’ into over an eight-year span.<\/p>\n

“I’ll be emotional,” Gleeson told The West Australian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I really want to be able to thank the Red Army for their love and support for eight years. It’s a very special place.<\/p>\n

“Seeing the jerseys up in the rafters from all of the championships will pull at my heartstrings. It’s a chapter of my life I am very proud of.<\/p>\n

“The Wildcats are a big part of my career. I spent eight years building up something, and I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. It will be a really emotional time.”<\/p>\n

Thursday’s Round 2 clash between Perth and Adelaide tips off at 9.30pm AEST, live on ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u200dRead the full story here >> Emotional former Perth Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson opens up about life before return with Adelaide 36ers<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are countless storylines from Thursday’s mouthwatering blockbuster between Perth and Adelaide at RAC Arena. From Bryce Cotton’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-903608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}