When a young Jesse Wagstaff watched the Canberra Cannons at 'The Palace', not once could he have imagined he would one day become a four-time NBL champion.
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That very scenario became a reality last Sunday as the Perth Wildcats swept the Illawarra Hawks in the NBL finals to cement their legacy as one of the league's greatest teams.
A late starter in basketball, by the time he'd finished college in the United States the Cannons were extinct.
Wagstaff managed a one-game stint for the Canberra Gunners in the SEABL before he was whisked away to Perth by then-coach and fellow Canberran Rob Beveridge.
Wagstaff is contracted to Perth for another season and closing in on a decade at Australian basketball's top level.
"I went to a few Cannons games back in the day, but it wasn't until after my senior year of college that I realised maybe I could make this a profession someday," Wagstaff said.
"It wasn't until quite late that I considered basketball as a career, but looking back [at] eight years now over in Perth, it's been a special eight and hopefully there's many more to come."
To make the 95-86 game three victory even sweeter, Wagstaff was celebrating his 250th NBL game — not that he knew about it.
Wagstaff knew nothing of his looming milestone until a Perth staff member let him know during the week, but the timing simply couldn't have been better.
The 30-year-old celebrated the milestone with another championship in front of a heaving Perth Arena, packed with 13,611 fans decked out in red.
"It's a pretty good time to be able to play your 250th — one, in front of your home crowd, and two, for a grand final," Wagstaff said.
"It was actually amazing timing, a bit of luck, I think."
Perth's sustained success as a franchise is something to behold — 30 consecutive playoff appearances for a league record eight titles.
Four of those championships have come in the past seven seasons, but for a long time it looked like the playoff streak would come to an end.
The Wildcats were last on the table with 10 weeks left in the season, but Wagstaff says "hope was never lost" because they knew they'd be "in with a good shot" if they could string a few wins together.
Only four wins separated first from seventh at the end of the season, and Perth only secured a top-four berth in the final round of the regular season.
"I think at all times throughout the season it was such a tight competition," Wagstaff said.
"Throughout the season you could lose a couple of games and drop but at the same time you strung three together and you jump back up the placings.
"It was one of the closest seasons I've been a part of. Obviously Adelaide were on top for a while, but even then I think they only got 17 wins and second, third [and fourth] got 15. It was extremely close all year."
