League owner Larry Kestelman and Tasmania JackJumpers coach Scott Roth both said they were not surprised by the "fairytale end" to the NBL season.
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Reliving the thrilling 3-2 grand final series victory over pace-setters Melbourne United at the Jackies' championship celebration in Launceston, the pair said it was a fitting end to the campaign.
Kestelman said the thrilling climax exceeded all his expectations.
"I could not have wished for a more fairytale ending," he said. "I think all of Australia apart from Melbourne was barracking for the JackJumpers.
"Surprised? No. We always knew we could put a super competitive team on the floor once we had Scott Roth on board and when he started putting the team together we felt pretty good about it but he and the team have exceeded our expectations as well as Tasmania's and, quite frankly, Australia's."
Roth said he genuinely felt the JackJumpers could win a championship in their maiden season (when they lost the grand final to Sydney Kings) rather than having to wait until their third.
"I said in the first week when I took the job 'We're going to win a championship this year'," he said. "There's a belief and a will that you have to have and you've got to have the right people on board.
"I believed when I got here, with all that I had learned, that if I was given the autonomy to go and do what I wanted, if I could find the right people."
The straight-talking American admitted he would rather have won by 20 points rather than see the last three games all come down to last-second mid-court Hail Mary attempts.
"The way we did win it was a credit to the way we do things. We grind, nothing's easy for us. But I think nothing's easy for Tasmanians and that was reflective of how we played and the resilience to get across the line."
Roth said the title was a proud moment for Tasmania and an accumulation of three years' hard work.
Asked where the achievement ranked in his 40-year basketball career spanning 20 clubs, the 60-year-old said: "Few things that are hugely important to me: the birth of my daughter; a little scrawny white kid from the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, that made the NBA when no one said he could do that and became one of the top 280 players in the world; and then this.
"I've coached MVP players, multi-billionaires, in the NBA, but this moment - to do something that was so unique, to build something from scratch that wasn't here and hopefully inspire a state - is really epic for me."
Ukraine-born billionaire property developer Kestelman, 57, used the celebration to urge the Tasmanian government to deliver on a promise to improve the Silverdome and encouraged the state's new AFL team to follow the JackJumpers' example and "share the love around the state".
"We're a summer sport, the AFL is a winter sport, I think we can co-exist very nicely and provide inspiration that kids need," he said.
"We've seen a huge surge in basketball in Tasmania and the biggest problem we have now is court availability. The numbers are staggering, it has more than doubled and is growing every day.
"I heard a stat that there are 35 courts that are needed immediately so between the state government and local councils we need to see how to fulfil demand. The kids want to play so we should definitely try to find a way."