Adelaide 36ers star Gary Ervin will miss New Year's Eve game against Crocodiles in Townsville Gary Ervin on the attack against the Cairns Taipans. GARY Ervin has known he had a worsening knee problem since Adelaide's second NBL home game but waited to have arthroscopic surgery and now will miss tomorrow's match in Townsville. "Originally I was told I wouldn't do any more damage if I kept playing but the knee locked up in the last game against Cairns and I got nervous," the Sixers' inspirational vice-captain said. After Adelaide beat the Taipans on December 15, Ervin informed team medics his knee had locked during the game and immediate surgery was prescribed as the best course. Ervin had floating bone fragments removed from the joint, including one he said was "the size of a Tic Tac." The problem initially surfaced during the first home game against Wollongong. "I slipped on the sidelines and hurt my knee," Ervin said. I thought it wasn't too bad at the time. But the dynamic playmaker began to experience occasionally swelling of the joint. "I felt like it was locking too, right after shootaround before our second home game," Ervin said. Post-session, Ervin was massaging the knee and found it locking. Ervin looks to dish off a pass. "I felt the bone and I could see every time I moved it, it was locking up," Ervin said. Scans showed there was something floating in there but I was told it won't do any more damage. I could keep playing because it only appeared to lock in a relaxed setting, like if I was sitting or something. I thought: 'If that's it, I can deal with that' and managed it for a while. But the alarm bells were ringing when Ervin's knee locked up during the home match against Cairns. I got nervous then and let the doctors know. With the 36ers having a 16-day break to their next game - in Townsville tomorrow in the annual New Year's Eve showcase - he was scheduled for an immediate arthroscopy. "They cleaned it out and fixed a slight tear in my meniscus," Ervin said. He has judiciously been rehabilitating the joint since and said he had not experienced any immediate swelling. While Ervin will join 36ers fans at the Arkaba Hotel to watch the match tomorrow night, he said he was optimistic he would be back in uniform on Saturday when the Sixers host reigning triple-champion New Zealand at Adelaide Arena. Joey Wright, who reaches the 300-games coached milestone with Adelaide tomorrow, coaching Gold Coast with which he also struggled for wins in Townsville. The match will be part of another WNBL-NBL double-header, with Adelaide Lightning resuming from their Christmas-New Year recess against second-ranked Dandenong Rangers. Ervin's absence against the Crocodiles, who beat Adelaide at The Swamp 98-94 on December 6, will be acutely felt. The year-ender will mark Joey Wright's 300th NBL game as a coach, making him just the 11th person to reach the milestone. He goes in with a 175-124 win-loss ratio and 59 per cent success rate, fourth in the exclusive 300-club behind Hall of Fame coaches Brian Goorjian, Brian Kerle and Bob Turner. But despite all his NBL success, Wright does have a head-scratchingly poor recent record in Townsville where he has lost his last eight matches. He was winless in six visits with the Gold Coast Blaze and lost his first trip there with Adelaide when Crocs point guard Steve "The Marksman" Markovic went off for a career-high 31 points with 8-of-11 threes. His last win at The Swamp was with Brisbane Bullets on October 6, 2007. He has coached 74 career games since then. Another statistical anomaly to plague the 36ers is that captain Adam Gibson will line up for his seventh straight New Year's Eve game and is 1-6. In 2008, his Brisbane Bullets lost at Cairns, in 2009 South Dragons lost at Townsville, in 2011 Gold Coast Blaze lost at home to Perth, as they did to Melbourne in 2012 while Adelaide lost this corresponding game last year in Townsville. Gibson's only win was in 2010 when Gold Coast beat New Zealand. Townsville is hosting its 14th consecutive New Year's Eve game and is 10-3 in the 13 played so far. Follow Boti Nagy on Twitter at @boti_nagy and at www.botinagy.com