Despite his less than harmonious split from the 36ers in 1992 which resulted in the Adelaide crowd regularly booing Bradtke for the rest of his career, in November 2015 Adelaide fans finally recognised his contribution not only to the 36ers but also the NBL when they voted him the best centre to ever play for the 36ers in an online poll conducted by Adelaide's daily newspaper "The Advertiser". Bradtke received 35.71% of the votes to beat out former teammate Bill Jones (25.17%) and 36ers triple championship winning centre Paul Rees (23.81%).