NAJEE Lane has had a second straight outstanding individual season for the Cockburn Cougars but that will count for little for the New Jersey native if it doesn't end up with an SBL championship.

Lane has now delivered two tremendous seasons in the SBL with the Lapa Brazilian BBQ Restaurant Cockburn Cougars and while he has enjoyed that experience, what he desperately wants is an SBL championship.

The 27-year-old from Trenton, New Jersey who played his college basketball at University of Clark Atlanta has the chance to help the Cougars to their third Men's SBL championship on Saturday night as Cockburn plays the defending champion Joondalup Wolves at Bendat Basketball Centre.

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Lane is a key piece of the Cougars puzzle coming into the Grand Final with his ability to get up and down the floor, shoot the ball, get to the rim, defend solidly and to bring his teammates into the game.

He is an outstanding all-round player and his performance will go a long way to determining whether or not he gets a championship at the end of the night or not. But there is certainly no feeling of accomplishment just having made the Grand Final.

Lane has also made sure he has soaked up everything about this week preparing to play in the decider.

"Of course it's exciting but I don’t want to get too excited because we haven’t finished the job and there's still more work to do. We're playing the defending champions so you can't treat it as a joke," Lane said.

"I don't feel like our job is completed, it's a long season and our initial goal from the beginning of the season was to win the Grand Final. So we still have work to do to make that happen and that's what we're trying to do now is win everything.

"I'm excited but it's sort of bittersweet because everything we do this week is the last time this group will be doing it together. So we've had our last training session but it's good that it's for a reason and that's because we are in a Grand Final game. I probably won't get too excited until I walk out and see the crowd, and the ball is thrown up in the air. "

Lane is looking forward to getting out in front of the big crowd as well and soaking up the atmosphere that he hopes players and referees alike adjust well to.

"I'm expecting a lot of green and blue to be there on Saturday night and I expect it to be a large crowd with a lot of emotions," he said.

"I expect the refs to be real into the game and it's not going to all that different to any other game once it starts. Of course there will be a lot more people watching but once the ball is thrown up in the air it's just basketball. You can't play like it's a different game."

A lot has been made of the absence of Cougars captain Gavin Field with his elbow injury and rightfully so, but Lane is fully confident Cockburn can cover him and that's because of the depth they have built this year and that means they have plenty others capable of standing up.

"Gavin also went out for six or seven weeks when he first got hurt and we just continue to press on, and play good because our team is deep. We have a deep team so if somebody goes out, somebody else steps up," Lane said.

"That's how we've been playing all year and we knew to finish the job we had to have depth and that's what we have.

"The best thing about this team is we have so many weapons and you never know who's going to go off in any game. Of course we have a lot of young guys, a couple of veterans and there's a lot of different weapons."

Lane has delivered two outstanding seasons with the Cougars. Last year he averaged 22.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.7 steals at 47.3 per cent from the field as Cockburn finished the regular season in fourth place before losing in the quarter finals to the Rockingham Flames.

Now the Cougars have won the minor premiership in 2016 and earned their way through to the Grand Final overcoming the Perry Lakes Hawks and Geraldton Buccaneers with Lane averaging 21.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.8 steals a game while shooting 49.3 per cent.

But no matter how his individual game is going, Lane just wants to be part of a winning team and that's why he is enjoying himself with this Cougars team so much.

"My initial thing is all about winning. No matter what, nobody likes to lose so as long as I'm winning I'm having fun. This year we won a lot of games with the help of Marcus Goode of course and things couldn’t have worked out any better so far," he said.

"The initial thing was coach Parsons. He is a great coach and the team chemistry was the other thing. Me and Gav had a special bond this year and I said if the opportunity was there that I would come back and hopefully we can win it all and look at what we've achieved. Now we are into the Grand Final game and that's everything I could have hoped for."

Lane will take some time back home immediately after the SBL season before deciding on what his next move will be, but he's certainly not ruling out the prospect of returning to the Cougars for a third year in 2017.

"I'm open to anything at the moment. Of course I'm going to back to America to take some time off first of all to enjoy myself, but if the opportunity is there I would love to come back to Australia," he said.

"A couple of teams have shown some interest for something in the immediate future and I'm going to stay open to that, but my first thing is to go back to the States to enjoy myself and take some time out with my family."

Lane has enjoyed his time living in Australia and the only thing he would change is to get to play in summer to fully make the most of the beaches.

"Australia is beautiful but the only thing I wish was that our season was played in summer," Lane said.

"If we did that would be amazing so I could enjoy the beaches a lot more. I have tried to enjoy the beaches during the winter but not as much as I would like too due to it being winter. But it's a nice country."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin