The half-time spray that's got no one talking

It’s the coaching spray that’s been the talk of the town this week … well everywhere outside of the “melting walls” of the South East Melbourne Phoenix change-rooms.

Sam Mackinnon’s half-time speech during the team's comeback win over Adelaide in the Play-In Tournament is said to be the stuff of legend, but the Phoenix stars themselves are keeping tight-lipped as to its exact contents.

“Probably can’t say ... it was not nice,” Matt Hurt said post-match.

“I’d rather not say,” Malique Lewis continued.

“The paint on the walls melted,” said another.

Sam Mackinnon.

With the production cameras booted out of the rooms, Mackinnon clearly delivered a speech that motivated the troops in an almighty way.

19 points down at half-time, they went on an incredible run to win by 10. Adelaide was left shell-shocked. 

Just what was said in those change-rooms though, perhaps we’ll never know.

“You’d have to ask the players what I said or what I did to motivate the guys,” Mackinnon said.

Well, the players have been asked, and the nature of the spray is still very much a secret. It’s becoming somewhat of an “urban myth”, according to NBL commentator Joel Peterson.

Perhaps this description paints the strongest picture … an “old-school bake of epic proportions”.

“He ain’t just no regular dude,” NBL champion Damon Lowery said of Mackinnon.

“He’s a Hall-of-Fame dude, a champion and an MVP of the league ... he did it all.

“He doesn’t really come across as that boisterous, vicious kind of a dude, but apparently he had some strong words to say and I think he delivered them in his cold, calculated way.

“In my opinion he would have said things like, ’is this who we are?’, ’have we come this far to just get this far?’, ’do we have any backbone?’, are we going to let these pretenders come into our house and blow us out at home?’, ’are you serious right now?’.

“I think it would have just been some straight facts like that.”

What exactly was said may never see the light of the day, but there’s one thing for sure, if Josh King needs to call on some extra support to get his players motivated, he knows exactly where to turn.

"I don’t know what the [expletive] Sam told you guys at half-time but it [expletive] worked," King said following the half-time spray, as revealed on the latest NBL documentary episode, which will be released on Saturday, February 22.