Winning with Eagles all Reath is focused on

Seb Reath enjoyed a special on-looker during last week's win for the East Perth Eagles with his NBA star older brother back in town, but he couldn’t be happier with the new home he's found and now winning is all he is worried about.

Reath is in his second season at the Eagles and already feels like he has found his basketball home with the impressive big man feeling more than happy with his teammates, coaches, the community and the new Peter Campbell Basketball Arena at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre.

The supremely talented big man is playing impressive basketball too averaging 15.4 points and 7.6 rebounds a game so far this season but now that he has found a home he loves with East Perth, all he is focused on is helping the Eagles win and be successful.

That happened last Saturday night in the 96-67 win against the Perry Lakes Hawks and just to add to the occasion for Seb was having his older brother Duop back in town and watching on fresh off his breakout NBA season at the Portland Trail Blazers.

Having NBA star brother back in town

Duop was a special on-looker last Saturday night with him back home in Perth after his standout NBA season at the Trail Blazers where he showed what he can do on the global stage, and now before he prepares to play for Australia at the Paris Olympics.

For Seb, he doesn't look at him as an NBA star, he is just his big brother and it was good to see him, and to have him watching him play and get the win with the Eagles.

"It's really good having him back and me and my brother are extremely close. We talk every day so it was obviously good to catch up and see each other in person again, and to have him there to watch our game," Reath said.

"It's always good to have him in town that's for sure, I wish I could have him around even more but he's a busy man and doing amazing things in the NBA and we are all so proud of him.

"It's so good to see someone that you are really close with achieve their dreams but to me it's just like watching my brother play basketball. I've always known what he has been capable of and now he's getting that platform to fully showcase his talent."

What didn’t surprise Seb at all was how quickly after the NBA season finished that Duop wanted to come back home. He couldn’t be happier to see him again in person even if he has more time to work on his golf game than he does.

"We grew up together and always did everything together, and still talk every day, and he's so family orientated so he wanted to get back home as soon as he could," he said.

"He kinda likes the little things like being home and hanging out with friends, going out and playing golf. He likes those lowkey, quiet life and the first thing in his mind was to come home to see his family friends.

"He probably is putting in a bit more work with his golf than me right now, so he might have me covered for now with that."

Feeling at home with East Perth

Playing at East Perth is somewhat of a homecoming for Reath as well and now that he is into a second season with the Eagles, he has no doubt he's found his home in the NBL1.

After Reath's time at Lee College in Texas, he returned home to Perth to begin playing at NBL1 level while finishing off his engineering studies and then starting his work life back home.

But it's now what he has found at the Eagles for the last 18 months that has him feeling right at home all because of his teammates, coaches, the community and to top it off now in 2024, the redeveloped stadium he gets to train and play at.

"Now that I'm in my second season here I feel like I've built some solid relationships at the club and I really like my teammates, the community and the coaches," Reath said.

"I kinda feel like it's home for me now definitely so I'm enjoying being at East Perth. It was definitely a good surprise seeing how amazing our new court looks too when we first walked in there, but I'd always heard about the work that was going on and the endless hours being put in by a lot of people behind the scenes.

"So it's just good to see all that hard work showing by how great the actual stadium is now, we all love going there now that's for sure."

Personal form so far in 2024

Reath put up some impressive numbers in his first season at East Perth in 2023 going at 19.4 points and 9.6 rebounds a game while shooting inside the arc at 55 per cent and outside it at 36 per cent.

Those are terrific numbers, but when looking at 2024, what Reath focused on was playing in a way that would best help the Eagles win as many games as possible.

That means he isn’t worried about how his numbers look because he just wants to set up a winning culture with East Perth.

It's working so far with him putting up 15.4 points and 7.6 rebounds but the Eagles have won two games and it could have easily been a couple more with some frustrating losses.

"Right now I'm just focusing on putting my teammates and myself in a position to be successful the best I can," Reath said.

"I'm just focusing on whatever it takes to help us win and I'm not too focused on any of my own success or numbers or anything like that.

"I just want to make sure I'm making that extra pass, doing what I can to get guys going, put guys in a position to help us win and doing the best I can defensively.

"I think those things are what can help us have long-term success and I care a lot more about that than my own numbers. At the same time, when I need to get going to help the team then I will make sure I'm ready to step up as well."

Summing up season so far

Five games into the 2024 season and the Eagles have won two of them and those were impressive away to the Eastern Suns and at home to Perry Lakes.

East Perth were also strongly competitive in two losses to the Warwick Senators and then the loss on the road to the Perth Redbacks was one the Eagles let slip through the fingers.

The signs are all there that the Eagles can be a top team in 2024 but for Reath, he knows it's always going to take some time blending in new faces like Sunday Dech, Sharif Watson and David Okwera into the line-up.

"I feel like we're still kinda adjusting to all our new players and figuring everything out, which is probably how I would sum up the first five games so far," Reath said.

"Everyone is still getting to know each other and we have never played with each other before so that can take some time, but we are figuring things out slowly.

"We have a bunch of guys that want to win and want to do the right thing, and that like each other. So that makes it a lot easier and our coach is putting us in a good position to win every game so basically it's just about going on from here and keeping on getting better."

Momentum from end of 2023

While it is a new-look Eagles team in a lot of ways with the new faces in 2023, there is Reath, Taylor Young and Jerami Grace back for a second season, and a core including Nic Filpo, Noah Straatsma, Anthony Filpo and Michael Clare still on deck.

That's where the signs from the way they ended 2023 was encouraging where East Perth started the season losing 11 of the first 12 games, but then finishing off winning five of the last seven.

Reath was feeling good about what was building on the back of that end to 2023 and now hopes the upward trajectory continues the longer 2024 goes on.

"I feel like we all came together a bit more at the end of last season and we started to get some momentum, and we started to do the right things for longer," Reath said.

"I think it was a big credit to us switching our mentality to the defensive end as well and that's where it all started.

"We had a bit more focus and weight to what we were doing defensively and I feel like that got us going, and that's what we were able to build on.

"That's now been an emphasis for this season to focus on our defence and the rest of it will take care of itself with the talent we have on the team."