The gruelling journey to United’s second Championship

It's been a week since Melbourne United claimed the 2021 NBL Championship in front of a roaring home crowd at John Cain Arena, enduring an unprecedented season and overcoming it all to be crowned the best team in the league.

What a journey it was.

The season kicked off in Adelaide on January 15 and United quickly sent a message to the rest of the league with a commanding second half performance to take the win, 89-65. The win was powered by five players scoring in double figures, including three from the second unit.

That performance was a sign of things to come. The depth of the squad was a huge factor all season and on any given night someone would step up and deliver, whether they were starting or coming off the bench.

Coach Dean Vickerman spoke about the unselfishness of the team throughout the season and there’s no doubt that was a key to claiming United’s second Championship. After winning the Championship with a Game Three win, 81-76, over the Perth Wildcats, Chris Goulding also mentioned the mindset of the team.

“We preached that message all year; the sacrifices that you make will be worth it and I’m so proud of our guys and I hope they enjoy this, and I hope they feel like it was all worth it because I certainly do,” Goulding said.

“It’s amazing. This is why we lace up our shoes every day, I tape my ankles every single day to come out and have this feeling right here.”

Even before the season tipped off, United faced challenges that could’ve crippled their Championship aspirations. Back in August last year, many players tested positive to COVID-19 and were forced to isolate, unable to train together for the better part of a month.

Instead of halting the momentum of building towards the season, that challenging period proved just how dedicated the squad was and provided motivation.

Goulding shared some insight into that period of time.

“We experienced the full force of the pandemic in the pre-season and I was so proud of our guys when we hadn’t trained in a month and we were only allowed to come in and shoot for 30 minutes, that there was never a stage where we looked for excuses or we looked at other teams that had been scrimmaging and playing against other teams in the pre-season,” he said.

“We wanted to be a team that had no excuses, we wanted to be a team like Richmond, like the Vixens, like the Storm, and for the guys that were on that early Zoom call and spoke about that, it’s so cool to now be sitting here and having that, so shout-out to those teams for the motivation.

“Victoria strong – we’ve been through a hell of a lot of stuff this past 18 months and hopefully we made some Victorians proud.”

There were moments throughout the season that made it an extremely memorable one. Getting off to a 6-0 start to the season, before making it 10 wins in 11 games was just the tonic to set up a charge towards the Championship.

After struggling in the early and middle stages of March, Melbourne rediscovered their form with hard-fought 10-point win over Illawarra and that kickstarted what would turn into a franchise-record 11 wins in a row.

During that winning streak, United was unflappable and answered every challenge. It was beautiful team basketball, highlighted by ball movement that had opposition defenders scratching their heads.

While the offence was humming, Vickerman had his squad playing stifling defence and that was the calling card all season. It all started on defence and then the offence so often got going in transition after getting defensive stops.

The heart of the team was tested once again late in the season when Melbourne found themselves stuck on the road. The Victorian lockdown forced United to close regular season on the road, but it only made the squad stronger.

United won five of their last six games of the regular season – all which were on the road – and that set up a mouth-watering Semi-Final series against cross-town rivals South East Melbourne.

The first ever Throwdown match-up in the Finals was a beauty, albeit played in strange circumstances in Sydney. United claimed Game One, before the Phoenix returned serve in Game Two.

Game Three was a roller-coaster.

After trailing by as many as 17 points in the second quarter, a total team effort by United – one that signalled just how badly the squad wanted to keep their season alive – saw them fight back and claim the win, booking a ticket to the Grand Final.

Despite finishing top of the ladder with a 28-8 record and earning home-court advantage throughout the Finals, Melbourne had to play the first two games of the Grand Final Series on the Wildcats’ home deck in Perth.

Just as United did all season, they didn’t find excuses, they simply got on with the job and claimed wins in Game One and Game Two.

That set up a blockbuster Game Three in Melbourne after 40 days between games at John Cain Arena.

The Melbourne faithful gave their team a loud welcome home and United returned the favour. It was an absolute battle – as it was all series long – but Melbourne came out on top, and the 5,000-strong capacity crowd celebrated hard.

Vickerman spoke about what it meant to win the Championship at home, especially after overcoming the obstacles on the road.

“It’s nice to say that we were pretty resilient and came through that challenge,” he said.

“To celebrate at home – and it still felt like it was pretty packed tonight even though it was only still half full – it’s amazing to win a Championship on your home floor.”

Whether they were on the road or at home, United could feel the support of their members and fans. Bringing a Championship to Melbourne was the ultimate goal and it was achieved.

Be there for NBL22 as United looks to reload for a tilt at another Championship.

SUBMIT YOUR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR AN NBL22 MEMBERSHIP HERE