Sam Froling

Will have a delayed start to his seventh NBL season at the Illawarra Hawks after rupturing his Achilles in Game 4 of the Championship Series.

Grew up as the youngest child to father Shane and mother Jenny, both who had terrific basketball careers in the NBL and WNBL respectively with older brother Harry, and sisters Alicia and Keely all playing professional too.

Grew up in Townsville and spent a season at Creighton University in 2018/19 before coming home to Australia initially to play NBL1 South at Dandenong Rangers.

Signed at Illawarra for rookie season in NBL20 and has continued to get better each NBL season including putting up 15.4 points and 7.8 rebounds a game in NBL24.

Received the Next Gen Award on the back of that and had a standout NZ NBL season with the Taranaki Airs leading into another 13.9 points and 7.0 rebounds in NBL25 on the team that won the championship with him as co-captain.