How Hawks' 'big shot-maker' etched his name in NBL folklore

Tyler Harvey’s clutch three-pointer in Game 2 of the Hungry Jack’s NBL25 Championship Series is etched in basketball folklore.

Down 1-nil in the series and 100-99 in Game 2, with 10.4 seconds on the clock, Hyunjung Lee inbounded the ball on the left wing right in front of the Melbourne United bench with Ian Clark draped all over him.

That meant little, as with a jab-step or two, Harvey created enough space to get a three-pointer, which found nothing but net and led NBL commentator Jack Heverin to say, ‘big shot taker, big shot maker - Tyler Harvey, enormous’, in one of the most iconic calls in NBL history.

That shot not only prevented the Hawks from falling down 2-0 in the series, rather levelling it up at 1-all and giving the Foundation Club the momentum they never looked back on, going on to claim their second ever NBL championship in five games.

But as Harvey recalls, and is with the theatre of the NBL, the first element of the moment started the play before, when the Eastern Washington alum fouled fellow import Ian Clark with the score at 99-98.

“Melbourne does a great job of getting a rebound and finding their shooters, who have relocated after a miss,” Harvey said.

“I remember, for a split second, I lost track of Ian Clark, and when I looked, I saw him trailing to the corner, and of course, Marcus Lee was looking right at him.

“Trailing that play, I was thinking I’m going to be late, let me just try to get a rear-view contest, but Ian Clark goes up and I hit him right on his braids and I thought, please don’t call this foul, but it was definitely a foul.

“In that moment, I realised that’s a pretty big foul to commit at that point of the game, and my mind went to, if he makes all three, we will still have a chance.

“[I’ll admit] I did say a prayer of ‘please give me another chance to redeem myself,’ just because there is just so much that goes into these games.

“People say that old cliche of, ‘you didn’t lose the play on that game’, but as a player, you know, those plays are so big.

“I stood right behind him [Clark] on the free-throw line, and every shot he took looked so straight and went in.

“[I then said to myself] here we go.

“I just tried to clear my mind and focus on the next play, because if I'm still thinking about the foul, I’m not giving myself the best chance to perform.”

Harvey then recalls that coach Justin Tatum, in his huddle, designed a play with different options, depending on who was in the game for United.

“When we broke out of the huddle, it wasn’t the match-ups we wanted, so everyone was kind of looking around, confused but the timeout was already up, so we all continued to walk out and aligned in the positions we were supposed to be for this other play,” the 32-year-old said.

“But obviously, I scratched that play [and the rest is history].

“I remember, the referee gave Lee the ball and Todd [Blanchfield] looked at me and gave me the look of ‘go get the ball’.

“So I just ran and got the ball, and at that point, you just let muscle memory take over, as you can’t really think about making or missing, you’re just going with what you see on the court.

“Fortunately, the ball went in, but there was a lot of chaos that went into that moment.

“I just try to stay still during those moments and read the situation.

“Obviously, the shot went in, and that burst of emotion and energy was just a relief that I had the opportunity to redeem myself for what I committed earlier.”

The drama at John Cain Arena wasn’t over though, with the hosts having one last chance to win or tie the game, with 5.7 second left on the clock.

“They still had time left and you know who the ball is going to [Chris Goulding] and what kind of shots he can make,” Harvey said.

“When he shot it, I thought he shot it a little hard, and that might bank in; luckily enough, it rimmed out and gave us a chance to even out the series.”

Harvey isn’t the only one with fond memories from that night in March, with Tatum remembering the occasion ‘like it was yesterday’.

“Watching this back, man, [the first thing I think is] the stupidity of T-Raw (Harvey) committing that foul on their three-point attempt we all know you don’t play defence like that,” Tatum said.

“But the short-term memory of him [is unmatched], so when the play broke down with us on offence, the ball found its way in his hands.

“I’m not going to call it a miracle shot, because he takes those kinds of shots all the time, but for him to have the confidence to get that shot up, make it and put us back up, was unbelievable - especially seeing the reaction by all the guys.”

The Hawks open their title defence on Saturday night, hosting Tasmania at the WIN Entertainment Centre from 8pm AEST.

The fixture, which will see the club unveil its second championship banner pre-game, will be broadcast live on ESPN.