Cheatham’s lowest moment became his turning point

Zylan Cheatham has opened up on the darkest stretch of his career, revealing last season's Championship Series heartbreak sent him into a "two-week depression" before it reshaped how he approaches the game.

The Adelaide forward says he has come out the other side in "a very, very good space", with a new perspective, career security for the first time and a clear focus on building his legacy with the 36ers.

The loss still stings. Adelaide led the Sydney Kings by four with 41 seconds left in Game 5, before Kendric Davis and Tim Soares forced overtime and Sydney pulled away to claim the title.

For a club chasing its first championship in 24 years, it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the two teams meet for the first time since that night on Sunday in Sydney.

"I mean, it definitely had an impact on me that I wasn't aware of, honestly," Cheatham said on basketball.com.au's Cut To The Jase podcast.

"You lose in the fashion that you lose, you put everything into the season, you plan to win that game and it just kind of abruptly ends.

"While I was still in Adelaide, it didn't really, you know, you feel it, but it didn't really hit me until I actually got back home to America and I kind of just fell into like a two week depression and kind of like something I had never really experienced, to be honest."

The 30-year-old said it changed how he spent his time away from the game.

"It definitely had some impact on my off-season because I'm usually getting back to work or I'm usually enjoying myself, letting my hair down before I get back to work. (But) I spent that time in kind of depression.

It gave him some all-important perspective.

"I took the time that was needed and I asked myself the question 'who do I think I am?'," Cheatham told CODE Sports in September.

"I'm not above the game. Above competition. People lose games all the time. Some of the greatest people in our game have made it to the mountaintop and lost and got some of their best lessons out of it.

"So it shifted my perspective and I got back into a gym doing what I love to do. And man I'm in a very, very good space now."

For the first time in his career, Cheatham also went into an off-season knowing exactly where he would be playing. He signed a two-year extension during NBL26, his first multi-year contract, and the bulk of last season's roster is back alongside him.

After stops in college, Europe, the NBA, G League, Japan and with the New Zealand Breakers, Cheatham said staying put was a deliberate choice.

"You reach that point in your career at 30, you know, I feel like I have more years behind than in front," he told basketball.com.au.

"I want to stick somewhere. I want to get somewhere where I can build my legacy."

Off the court, he has used that stability to start building something for life after the game. Alongside a childhood friend, he now runs a small trucking operation in the US. He told CODE Sports the inspiration came from an unlikely source: hours spent behind the wheel in Grand Theft Auto.

Cheatham, though, says the focus is on the process, not the scoreboard from April.

"I feel like it's important for us to not just let that be that thing that's just sitting there like 'oh we just have to get back to the championship, we have to get back there'," he said.

"When you look too far ahead, I feel like you start skipping steps in the process and that's what we do not want to do."

Adelaide takes on the Sydney Kings on Sunday at 3pm AEDT, live on ESPN.

Read the full story >> 'Fell into a depression': 36er's dark moments after championship loss