Hawks' Unrivalled Resilience Shines Through

For a team that sits last on the NBL standings, that hasn’t tasted victory since December 5 and that's lost four imports to season-ending injuries along the way, the Illawarra Hawks have been nothing short of incredibly resilient.

The Hawks are undermanned, battered and could easily “throw in the towel” on the rest of the season, but game after game they show up, and game after game they take it to the league’s best teams.

A five-point loss to the Cairns Taipans was the latest in a run of heartbreaking defeats, with Jacob Jackomas’ men putting themselves in a winning position, but ultimately faltering in the dying moments.

Of course, winning is vital to team culture, and with just two wins from 22 games across NBL23, it’s been a tough season to say the least … but perhaps most importantly, there’s hope.

“Everyone’s going to have opinions on what they think, what they think of me, what they think of our main guys and what we should be doing,” Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas said.

“They (the players) are fighting and the people that are fans should be proud of them.

“You can kick yourself and ask yourself what to do at the end, but I’m not going to take away from that and what these guys are doing.

“We’ve been unlucky with whatever’s gone on, but they’re putting themselves in a situation to win basketball games.”

In a ten-game losing streak, there’s been blowouts along the way, but just look at the past fortnight and the Hawks’ progress is clear.

They ran the in-form JackJumpers to within three points and suffered eight and ten-point defeats to Adelaide and Perth respectively.

Two outings against the highly-touted Taipans have resulted in five and seven-point losses.

Their competitiveness, for a team that’s been challenged like no other this season, is unrivalled.

“In the early stages of the year we might have just let that one (Cairns) go, but this guy (Jackomas) sitting next to me has done an unbelievable job of just keeping us engaged and keeping us focused on the next play,” Tyler Harvey said.

“It’s very easy at this stage for coaches and players to throw in the towel and to say ‘you know what, it’s just not our year’. He’s kept us engaged, locked us in and it shows on the court. We didn’t have any let-up, even though we were down early.

“That shows the growth of this team.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Follow the leader? Tyler Harvey is doing WORK in this final quarter!<br><br>Catch the final moments on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/96rrFfZ2et">pic.twitter.com/96rrFfZ2et</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1613843280894267392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Injuries to key players have provided opportunity for fresh faces to shine; Will Hickey and Lachlan Dent are playing significant minutes and showing the basketball world what they can do.

Dan Grida is back after a horror run of injuries, and all of a sudden, the future in Illawarra looks bright.

“I’m so proud of ‘Davo’, Lachie … the way they’re handling themselves,” Harvey added.

“Nobody’s perfect … I’m not perfect, they’re not perfect, but to come in here and show what they have shown over these last 10 to 12 games, is unbelievable. They’re growing as players.

“It’s the cards we were dealt so they have to grow in these situations. I couldn’t be more proud of those two.”

The Hawks will have another opportunity to get back on the winners’ list when they take on the Sydney Kings at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday.

They’ll have it all against them in front of a huge crowd in enemy territory and against the NBL’s very best, but one things for sure, they won’t die trying.