At home with Adelaide 36ers coach Mike Wells
SALIFE chats to Adelaide 36ers head coach Mike Wells and his wife, Utah TV personality Kerri Cronk, discovering relationships are the key to success, on and off the court.
When Adelaide 36ers fans approach Mike Wells to ask if they can have a photo with the head coach – who has previously worked with NBA players Kobe Bryant, Charles Barkley and Yao Ming, to name a few – it’s often Mike’s wife Kerri Cronk who is handed the camera.
“Here in Adelaide, people will ask me to take a photo of them with Mike; it happens all over the place,” Kerri says.
“I’ll sometimes hold coats and sweaters for people while they have their photos taken with him,” she laughs.
It’s a running joke for Mike, who says the roles are reversed when the couple is back in Salt Lake City where Kerri worked in television for 30 years, including two decades as an anchor on the morning news show Good Day Utah.
“Kerri is modest, but she and her co-host Dan (Evans) were Utah’s number one morning show for 20 years. It’s a heck of a run. We kid that Dan’s her TV husband, because they basically grew up together too,” Mike says.
“In Salt Lake City, whenever we’re out to dinner, somebody will always recognise Kerri, and ask me, ‘Will you take a photo of us?’ I’d joke that, ‘Hey, I’m a big deal too, you know’.
“We were just back in Utah, and even at the supermarket people stop Kerri; everybody knows her.”
Mike’s career in basketball has seen him work as an assistant coach with eight NBA teams, including the championship-winning 2009 San Antonio Spurs, where he worked alongside Greg Popovich – one of the most distinguished basketball coaches of all time.
“I’ve been fortunate to work for some legendary head coaches, and I try to take a little bit of all those coaches in my coaching style.
“The day I started with the Lakers in 2004, I walked in and the general manager said, ‘Welcome to the Lakers. We just traded Shaq to Miami’. So, the year I coached Kobe, he was trying to show everybody that he could win a championship without Shaq.
“Unfortunately, he got injured and it was one of the first times the team didn’t make the playoffs. Kobe and I kind of kept in touch over the years … all the stories about how driven and competitive he was are all true.”
In 2014, Mike moved to Salt Lake City to became an assistant coach with the Utah Jazz. He and Kerri met through a mutual friend at a local high school basketball game.
The couple each have two sons – Kerri’s boys are 27 and 25 and Mike’s are 17 and 13 – all of whom have bonded over shared interests.
“Blending families is a very different dynamic and I’ve learned that it’s like building our own team. In the beginning, we got together for Sunday dinners and took our time helping the boys get to know each other,” Mike says.
Both Mike and Kerri are passionate about their respective careers. Kerri admires Mike’s loyalty, team-mentality and skill as a communicator, while Mike appreciates Kerri’s professionalism and dedication. “She’s also very competitive,” laughs Mike. “You get her on the pickleball court; or it could be anything.”
But their careers also posed many challenges when it came to balancing work and family life. Mike would get home from away games in the early hours of the morning, with Kerri rising shortly after to be live on television at 5.30am. The basketball season is also gruelling, with more than 80 games in the regular NBA season.
After working with the Charlotte Hornets for one season, which saw the couple spend several months apart, it was Adelaide of all places that drew Mike’s interest for the next step in his career.
“I’ve been an assistant for so many years and becoming a head coach has always been the end goal. I was given some advice to look at the NBL for my next step.
“The league is on fire; it’s the fastest growing league in the world. The 36ers had an opportunity for me as an assistant coach, and the plan was to learn everything I could about Australian basketball.”
Mike barely had any time to find his feet when the club dismissed its previous head coach and quickly thrust Mike into the top job, making him the third head coach in as many seasons. He then had a rocky introduction to the 36ers fanbase when cameras caught him giving his players a good old-fashioned spray during practice.
Mike admits his first season with the 36ers was a steep learning curve, but the club did make its first finals appearance since 2018.
“Being a head coach is a dream for me and it has been an interesting growth period. The first thing that hit me is just the number of decisions you have to make every day, and how those decisions have a ripple effect that impacts so many different people – from players to coaches and support staff.”
One year ago, Kerri made the big decision to resign after 30 years in television, move to Adelaide, and support Mike in his dream of working as a head coach.
“It was a big decision,” Kerri says. “I’d been at the station 30 years, and decided I wanted to come here, follow this dream of Mike’s and it sounded like a great adventure.”
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Adelaide has given them an opportunity for stability. The couple celebrated their third wedding anniversary last month, and Mike says it’s the first time they’ve been together for the occasion.
The couple lives at Henley Beach with Mike’s son, Troy, who is in high school and enjoying initiation to Australian life. It’s been a great time of decompression for Kerri who for many years set her alarm for 3.45am and presented more than five hours of live television each day.
Earlier this year, Mike and Kerri visited Uluru by car, which they thought would be the ultimate adventure until several hours into seeing nothing but desert and roadkill.
A highlight for Kerri was visiting Kangaroo Island with friends. “And I love the food. I’m now hooked on Weet-Bix. I love the potato wedges with sour cream and hot chilli sauce, and then pavlova, I love pavlova,” Kerri laughs.
A big sports fan, Kerri has relished the atmosphere of NBL games which she says are as exciting as American basketball. “In the NBA, if you make the finals, the excitement and the energy of those playoff games is off the charts.
“But I’ve noticed that every single game at the Entertainment Centre feels like those playoff games. There are only 33 games in the season so there’s more at stake. Every game is a must-win,” she says.
“It’s different being married to Mike as the head coach because I now feel the pressure for him. The kids laugh because when we watch the games at home, I sometimes leave the room if it gets too stressful. Once you get to know the players, then you’re personally invested in seeing them succeed.”
During the recent off-season, the club signed Bryce Cotton, arguably the NBL’s greatest player of all time, and a second star, Zylan Cheatham, both of whom Mike coached for short periods at the Utah Jazz.
“Fast forward since last season, and I have really tried to change the culture of the Sixers, starting with a blank slate to give us a foundation I think can be successful,” says Mike.
“As I have become more comfortable in the role, I’ve realised that it really is all about relationships. Last season, I started at zero with all my guys, but now I know them so much better. The joy of coaching is building those relationships, and ultimately connecting them on and off the court.”
Mike does feel a weight of expectation as a relative newcomer to the Adelaide basketball community. There’s the club’s 5000-long membership waiting list, an upcoming season that will see every home game sold out, and the fact the club hasn’t won a flag since Brett Maher’s illustrious 2002 championship-winning team.
“I definitely feel the responsibility of trying to get Adelaide back to being one of the best teams in the league and helping the players on the journey of their careers.
“Adelaide has always loved basketball. Fans pack the Entertainment Centre. Every game this year would be a sell-out and the atmosphere at the Entertainment Centre is second to none. The atmosphere is every bit as good as the NBA.”
Earlier this year, rumours circulated that Adelaide’s own NBA star Joe Ingles – who Mike coached at Utah – was in talks with the 36ers. Mike says the rumour was exactly that, but he doesn’t completely rule it out.
“Joe is a good friend and a real character, and I’ll text him: ‘It’s time for you to come home, it’s the perfect ending to your career!’. But he has a great setup in Orlando with his family and I’m happy for him. I don’t think he would ever come back, but it would be fitting, so who knows?”
It’s up to Mike to ensure his star line-up of big personalities are cohesive on the court, but it’s what he’s been doing at the top level for 30 years.
“At the end of the day, all these great players just want to win. So as coach, you need to build an environment where they can trust you to help them achieve that. I think that is what coaching is all about.
“Whether we’re talking about family or friends, it’s all about the networks and building the trust to know that I’m trying to do everything I can to help them be successful.”
This article first appeared in the September 2025 issue of SALIFE magazine.
