The 36ers' tally of four championships is equal with the New Zealand Breakers, and fourth only behind the Sydney Kings (five), Melbourne United (six) and Perth Wildcats (ten) as the most by any club in the NBL's history.

The championship was won that year by the West Adelaide Bearcats who featured future 36ers in 1982 NBL MVP Al Green, Moscow Olympian Peter Ali and veteran guard Ray Wood.

Import players including 6'9" (207 cm) centre Bill Jones, New York-born combo guard Al Green (who had been drafted by the San Diego Chargers as a Defensive back in the 1979 NFL draft despite not playing football) and an NBL rookie in 24-year-old Power forward from Philadelphia, Mark Davis who joined the team 5 games into the season after dominating the local league with South Adelaide, combined with local players Darryl Pearce, team captain Peter Ali, young gun Mike McKay, and veteran Ray Wood to help Adelaide to a 20–6 record and second on the regular season ladder behind the Brian Kerle coached Brisbane Bullets who featured Australian Olympian Larry Sengstock, arguably the league's best player and former West Adelaide championship player Leroy Loggins, Ronnie "The Rat" Radliff, and the "Black Pearl" Cal Bruton.

27-year-old import centre Bill Jones replaced Peter Ali as captain and 6'6" (199 cm) former import forward (now a naturalised Australian citizen) Dwayne Nelson returned to the team after a year away, while Ken Cole would win the NBL Coach of the Year award after guiding the team to a 24–2 record, 5 more wins than the second placed Canberra Cannons (as of 2016–17 this is the only time a 36ers coach has won the award).

After the story was broken in one of Adelaide's daily newspaper's at the time, The Advertiser, Cole was suspended by the club for the last two games and the team was coached by his assistant Don Shipway.

While Cole was a coach who was high on motivating his players, Fox ran a much more stringent operation and the free-flowing 36ers of 1985 and 1986 became far more structured, much to the dismay of Al Green and Mike McKay who preferred a more free flowing offence.

1988 also saw 6'10" (208 cm), Adelaide born centre and Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) attendee Mark Bradtke make his NBL debut for the 36ers.

Both Darryl Pearce and Mark Bradtke won selection for Australia at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, helping the team to finish 4th after being defeated 49–78 in the bronze medal playoff game by a United States team that included future Hall of Fame players David Robinson and Mitch Richmond as well as NBA players Dan Majerle, Danny Manning and Hersey Hawkins.

With Jones now gone from the team, Mark Bradtke became the starting centre for the 36ers and his star continued to rise with the Olympic representative winning the NBL's Most Improved Player award.

They lost their semi-final series to their nemesis, defending and eventual league champion the Perth Wildcats, missing out on their third grand final appearance in 5 years.

Adelaide improved to a 14–12 record under Monson and made the playoffs finishing in 7th place but were beaten in the quarter-finals by the defending NBL champion South East Melbourne Magic.

Whyalla junior and AIS attendee, barrel chested 6'5" (195 cm) forward Chris Blakemore was named the 1993 NBL Rookie of the Year, while 8th year guard (and future team coach) Scott Ninnis was voted as the NBL's Most Improved Player, scoring a career best 20.1 points and 4.4 assists per game after returning from two seasons in Melbourne with the Eastside Spectres and the Magic respectively.

The win over the Tigers came at a cost though as team captain Mark Davis's court time was limited in the Grand Final after dislocating his right shoulder during the first game of the semi-finals.

Following the sudden death of his father after the 1996 season, coach Dunlap return home to the United States and decided to stay there to be closer to his family.

Maher, Mark Davis (who had become an Australian citizen in 1992), Brett Wheeler and Chris Blakemore had all made their debut for the Boomers in March 1995 at the Clipsal Powerhouse in the first of a 5-game series with the touring Magic Johnson All-Stars.

The 36ers had not been expected to defeat the Brian Goorjian coached Magic who had a 26–4 regular season record and had easily swept the Brisbane Bullets in the semi-finals.

The change in time slot didn't stop the defending NBL champion 36ers though as they finished the 1998–99 regular season with their first minor premiership since 1988 with an 18–8 record.

Adelaide captain Brett Maher became only the second player in NBL history along with Perth's Ricky Grace to win two Grand Final MVP awards.

Joining the club that year was import shooting guard Willie Farley as well as local juniors Oscar Forman and Jacob Holmes.

The team, which included local junior and former NBA player, 7'1" (216 cm) centre Luke Schenscher, finished the regular season in 6th place with a 15–15 record before losing their quarter-final 131–101 to the New Zealand Breakers in Auckland.

Former Michigan State Spartans NCAA Final Four championship winner and now naturalised Australian, 6'9" (205 cm) forward/centre Adam Ballinger, in his third season with the club became team captain in 2009–10 following the retirement of Maher.

The club was also plagued by a string of failed imports, though most were lost through injury, others either under-performed or were misused by the coaching staff, with one of the only shining lights being power forward Diamon Simpson who posted 12 double-doubles in 27 games.

The emergence of 6'11" (212 cm) centre Daniel Johnson as a scoring and rebounding threat (he led the club in scoring for both seasons and led the NBL with 8 rebounds per game in 2012–13), the signing of former Gold Coast Blaze players Adam Gibson, Anthony Petrie and Jason Cadee, and the emergence of exciting young Victorian Swingman and crowd favourite Mitch Creek (who suffered a season ending Achilles tendon injury in mid-2012–13), gave fans hope for the future.

[9] With the 36ers' list proving it had what it takes to contend the championship, Joey Wright locked in all eight Australians players (Mitch Creek, Nathan Sobey, Daniel Johnson, Matthew Hodgson, Brendan Teys, Majok Deng, Anthony Drmic and Adam Doyle) from the 2016–17 roster for the 2017–18 season.

A disappointing 19-point loss against the Cairns Taipans at home on Christmas Eve was the turning point for the Sixers, who went on to win 10 of their last 12 games, including seven-in-a-row, and booking themselves second spot on the ladder at the end of the regular season.

However, rather than just be a tenant where they would pay a fee to use the facility and be subject to possible date changes due to pre-booked events, both the Adelaide 36ers and BASA wished for their own venue of operations and play that would serve as the home of basketball in South Australia.

This was due in honour of retiring long time club captain Brett Maher who had made his 36ers and NBL debut on the night the Powerhouse opened in 1992.

The 36ers highest ever home attendance was set on 11 April 2014 during Game 2 of the 2014 NBL Grand Final series against the Perth Wildcats at the Adelaide Arena.

To appear in this section a player must have either: In November 2015, Adelaide's daily newspaper The Advertiser ran an online poll to find the fans favourite / best ever team.

The results were as follows:[31] The Adelaide 36ers have hosted 8 NBL Grand Final games, 2 at the Apollo Stadium and 6 at the Clipsal Powerhouse (Titanium Security Arena).