How the Perth Wildcats set up their charge towards another title

An inspirational meeting outside RAC Arena on the eve of the finals set the tone for the Perth Wildcats to win this season’s NBL championship.

The Wildcats established a season theme of “why” during their NBA pre-season tour in October. Standing on a practice court at the University of Denver, days after they were thumped by Utah, the players wrote down on a piece of paper why they played basketball.

The answers were stashed away by coach Trevor Gleeson and revealed by each team member in the week off before the finals. Captain Damian Martin said it was a pivotal moment in the season.

“I’m glad we did it. It was a big part of our finals campaign,” Martin revealed.

“We were remembering a simple thing like why we play the game.

“Right before finals we got together, we shared it in a group and it was a really nice moment.

“The guys stood up and talked about whether you play because of your passion for the game, the competitive nature and wanting to win championships, or for your family and friends. I was inspired by my dad, the commitments and sacrifices he made.

“Sharing that vocally in a public forum with your teammates was a really nice moment. We were remembering why we play this incredible game.

“We did it out the front of the Arena. That’s our home court, it’s the place we’d be suiting up and playing the finals at.”

The tour of America had contrasting results. It shook the team’s confidence, but also showed the players they could compete with the best in the world. The Wildcats followed an embarrassing 130-72 loss to the Utah Jazz by competing strongly against the Denver Nuggets.

Perth trailed by one point during the third quarter before losing by only eight points.

Gleeson said the lessons learnt during that trip set them on the way to the title.

“Getting walloped by Utah was a real awakening,” Gleeson said.

“We had a meeting the next day and said ‘OK, what did we learn out of this?’ We put a number of items down on the table and we still have it up in the locker room today just to remind us that when we play this way, we’re pretty good. When we don’t play it, we can get flogged.

“Leading into the play-offs here we reminded guys we almost beat an NBA team when we played Wildcats basketball. If we play that, we’re going to be hard to beat. The guys did that.”