Seymour heroics have Lions on verge of another GF

Featured image: Dan Cowley | @imagesby_dan

Jaden Seymour made his first venture overseas to join Central Districts Lions in NBL1 Central to get back to playing and not only has that been a success, but he's starred in the run to a preliminary final including the stunning winning dunk on Saturday.

Before a knee injury at the end of his college at East Tennessee State University delayed the start to his professional career, Seymour was feeling good about where his career was heading after a senior year of 15.3 points and 6.6 rebounds while named to the All-SoCon First Team.

But that injury meant that he actually signed a contract to join the Lions in NBL1 Central before he had played again after college but then before heading down under, he was picked up by the Grand Rapids Gold of the G League.

That didn’t quite lead to the opportunities he hoped with just 4.2 minutes a game in nine appearances so by the time he landed in Adelaide to join the Grand Finalists from last year, it was all about getting back to playing and building that confidence back in his game and body.

It's certainly worked with the dynamic and versatile athletic 24-year-old producing 17.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.1 steals a game with Centrals and continuing to get better all the time.

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That included a match winning 33 points, 13 rebounds and three assists in the elimination final win against the Woodville Warriors and then he was the hero on Saturday night in the first semi-final against the Sturt Sabres.

In what had been a wild game, it all came down to the last possession with 5.5 seconds left and with the Lions down one and coming out of a Rupert Sapwell.

It turned out the play couldn’t have been drawn up nor executed more perfectly with Kalani Sapwell throwing the perfect lob pass to the cutting Seymour who had a wide open path the basket thanks to the on-point screen from Koen Sapwell.

Seymour then completed the job with the alley-oop dunk for Central Districts to win and set up a preliminary final match up now this Saturday against the Forestville Eagles.

"I didn’t think I was going to end up that open, but it definitely worked so I couldn’t complain about that, it was a great play, and a great draw up from coach for sure," Seymour said.

"Really it was just running exactly what coach had drew up so I just saw the ball coming as soon as I came off the screen and there really wasn’t much thoughts about what I had to do, I just had to catch the ball and finish the play. I just had to make sure I didn’t miss the dunk."

Wild game of fluctuations

Coming off that first finals win against Woodville, Centrals came out on fire on Saturday night against a Sturt team on their home floor who had finished the regular season in second spot with five more wins than the Lions.

The Lions opened up a 26-point lead in the second quarter and were still up 22 in the third and 15 in the fourth, but then Sturt came firing back with a 13-0 run to grab the lead and have all the momentum on their home floor.

The season was on the line for both teams and Centrals fired back and then executed that finally play perfectly, but Seymour has already turned attention to the preliminary final and the next job against Forestville.

"It's really just about staying level and not really ever getting too high or too low so you know that they'll always make a run just like we made a run in the first half," Seymour said.

"I just feel like it was about staying with it, stay level-headed and don't start panicking or do anything too crazy because we still had the opportunity to win. I feel like that's what we did by hanging in there but we're looking ahead now, and it was a good win of course, but we've still got two more to go too. It's about moving on."

Finding a home with Centrals

Seymour wasn’t sure what exactly to expect when he arrived in Adelaide and it was quite the leap having finished college, spent most of the next 12 months rehabbing his knee injury and then having a stint in the G League to suddenly move across the world.

But what he has found with Centrals has surpassed all expectations and he has embraced the family nature especially with Rupert-Koen-Kalani Sapwell, and Deng-Magok Manyang a key part of that.

"It's real cool seeing how much of a family-oriented club it is so it's been cool to join for sure," Seymour said.

"I feel like they have welcomed me with open arms and just made it an easy transition coming from the US for my first time overseas. It's definitely been a cool experience."

The journey to the NBL1

Having grown up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and attending Northside Christian Grammar School, Seymour started his college career at Wichita State University before transferring to East Tennessee State where he ended up graduating from in 2025.

However, a knee injury meant he didn’t play from his last game in college in early March until a first appearance in the G League in February of this year with Grand Rapids.

But by that stage, he had already signed with Central Districts so the NBL1 Central was always going to be his first overseas destination.

"I was in the G League the whole year but I was coming off an injury from college so I felt like that might have threw off my progress a little and I didn’t play a whole lot," Seymour said.

"But I ended up getting picked up for the last month and I'd already signed a contract to come out here so the plan was to come out here and use this as the chance to get back to playing really.

"I had basically taken a whole year off trying to get healthy so I signed this contract before signing in the G League so that's why I did come a couple of weeks into the season. I've jumped in since then and have loved it."

Adjusting to life down under

Seymour wasn’t sure exactly what to expect to living in Australia either but he did feel like it would be less of a culture shock than his first overseas venture was somewhere in Asia or Europe.

The fact that a few months later and the biggest thing he has found that he didn’t like was a cooked tomato with his breakfast and it's fair to say he has adjusted to life in Australia rather well.

"It's interesting and definitely different than home but I think it's cool and the people are nice, and it wasn’t really too hard to interact with people because everybody speaks English here," Seymour said.

"So communication has been easy and I just feel like it was a pretty smooth transition, and it's been cool just experiencing something new and early on I was living close to the water.

"I'm a little farther now but being by the beach is pretty cool and this is a nice city. I've been trying lots of different food and to embrace the different way of living, and the lifestyle overall so it's been cool and a good experience to learn about a new culture.

"It's my first time overseas so I'm just taking it all in and learning what I can, and experiencing some different things and making the most of it."

Getting confidence back in body

It was almost a full 12 months that Seymour was sidelined with a partially torn medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) which virtually keeps your kneecap in place.

He then didn’t get to spend as much time on court in the G League as he hoped to regain that playing touch and confidence in his body to handle the rigors of a game before heading to Adelaide.

Then it's also been an adjustment having to come into a semi-professional environment with mostly one game and just the practice sessions two nights a week, but one thing that has agreed with him is how good he's now feeling physically after 18 games of playing at over 32 minutes.

"It might have made it a little bit harder to find my rhythm just getting back into the game just because at the G League I didn’t play too many minutes so coming here and it's my first time playing 20-plus minutes in over a year," Seymour said.

"So just having one game a week and two practices made it a little harder for me to get my rhythm and back into it, but I just tried to take it upon myself in terms of working out and lifting, and doing all that extra stuff that might be pushed or forced in college and in the pros.

"So I just tried to take it upon myself to make sure I stayed consistent with working out and shooting, and not doing much different to what I would do back home or in school or in the G League. I've been trying to work out almost every day to stay consistent and disciplined."

Taking momentum into the prelim

Seymour joined a Central Districts team in 2026 that made the Grand Final last year in their best finish in the NBL1 era and who came into this season with hopes of putting themselves in contention once more.

They have now done that to be one win away from another Grand Final, but standing in their way is a Forestville team who finished a game clear in top spot and who feature Daniel Johnson, Greg Mays, Adam Doyle, Jordan Forbes and Alex Starling.

They finished with the exact same 16-2 record to be regular season champions last year too before missing the Grand Final so the Eagles will be desperate to not let that happen again, but Seymour is solely focused on things from a Central Districts perspective.

"We just have to make sure we stay focused and don't think too far ahead, we can't look past anybody or look back, we just have to focus on this next game," Seymour said.

"We're definitely feeling good and we've been doing good in the later part in the season so we just want to carry on that momentum.

"I can see the way people might see the more pressure being on them for sure, but that's not how I approach it and I see it as we're both playing for the same thing.

"I take every game the same way in general and you can't worry about too much about any of those things, I just focus on keeping things consistent myself with what I do for the team.

"I don’t think anybody is nervous or anything on our team, we're just approaching the same we have every other game and once our team came together for real and spent more time together, things are going good and we don't need to change too much.

"We just can't make simple mistakes and can't give them the game, we have to make them beat us if anything.

"We felt like we beat ourselves when we have lost this year, so we just have to make sure we're doing all the little things right and not making easy mistakes and giving them any advantages."