The brotherhood driving Tassie's Finals run

The Tasmania JackJumpers have already caused one Finals upset with their Playoff Series defeat of the Perth Wildcats, and star forward Jack McVeigh says one of the group’s biggest motivators is they don’t want the season to end.

A Championship Series meeting with Melbourne United now awaits Tasmania, who defeated their upcoming competition twice in three games during the regular season.

McVeigh, who was named to the All-NBL Second Team this season, says the team just wants to keep “hanging out”.

“There’s a lot of talk about the JackJumpers way,” McVeigh said. “For me, we just love coming into work every day. We love hanging out and enjoying each other’s company, and 10 minutes before the game we’re talking about how we don’t want this thing to be over because we love hanging out.

“We’re having laughs in the locker room, we enjoy traveling together, it’s just fun. That focus comes from a desire to not be done.

“The beauty and the curse of sport is every year it’s a new team, changes happen, guys leave, you never know what’s going to happen. We’ve got a group here where we want to keep playing together, keep having fun and keep playing JackJumper basketball.”

Outside of Tasmania’s outstanding run to the Championship Series, McVeigh himself is in the midst of a career-best season.

The local forward has been launched into conversations regarding his potential status as a Boomer in the upcoming Olympic squad, and whether or not he could be the recipient of an NBA contract once this season is over.

He played a starring role in the series win over Perth, but he says he’s shutting all that outside noise out.

“I’ve got a good circle of people that give me reality checks every single day, and they’re the type of people I want to surround myself with,” he said.

“Some days it definitely doesn’t feel real. After the game I went and sat by myself for a couple of minutes and was like ‘I’m pretty good, how did this happen?’

“I have moments, but I’m still just a kid shooting hoops in my backyard at the age of seven with my mum coaching me, trying to beat down on my little brother and my big brother beating down on me.

“That’s how it still feels, and I’m just trying to have fun and enjoy every single moment of it.”

Game 1 of Tasmania’s Championship Series against Melbourne will tip off at 4pm AEDT on Sunday, live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies, 10 Peach and 10 Play.