Harvey's promise to the 'Gong

For the past four seasons Tyler Harvey has represented all that is good about the Illawarra Hawks. He’s been their ride-or-fail closer and represented the club with pride for 125 games. Now, that love affair is set to continue.

Harvey has signed a three-year extension with the Wollongong side, the final season of which possesses a club option. Should he remain with the side for the entirety of his new contract, his tenure there will have extended out to a full seven years – a rare occurrence for any player at any club given the rapidly growing global nature of the game.

The former NBA draftee came within touching distance of an MVP gong in his first season at the club and has been integral to three separate Finals pushes with the Hawks, and he was the most vocal believer in the side during their horror NBL23, in which they won just three of 28 games.

The Hawks are the only club in the NBL to have played in every season of the competition’s history, and they’ve only tasted championship success once – all the way back in 2001, when GM Mat Campbell was a superstar player alongside the likes of Damon Lowery, Glen Saville and Melvin Thomas.

Damon Lowery celebrates with fans during the 2001 Grand Final Series.

The Hawks have been a perennial underdog throughout their storied NBL tenure, but Harvey says the desire to bring a second title to Wollongong permeates throughout the club.

“For me personally, that internal drive to win a championship is something that keeps me motivated. It was hard for me to take time off this year, I usually like to take at least a couple of weeks off but after we lost that game there was a burning feeling inside of me and I felt I had to get back into the lab and fix some things and watch some film to become better as a player,” Harvey told NBL Media.

“There’s a buzz about this place when you’re winning and fortunately enough in three of our last four years, we’ve finished in the top four. I’ve always said this city deserves another championship and anything I can do to help be a part of that I want to continue to do.

“I made a promise to myself and this city last time I signed for three years that I was going to help bring a championship back here, and I have to fulfil that promise to give this city what they deserve.

“I think it would mean the world, not only for the fans but also for myself. The buzz we had walking around the city when we were heading into Playoffs after we turned the ship around was unbelievable.

“You stop and have conversations with people walking down the street and they love winning, and we love winning.

“We want to bring winning back to this city. It deserves it and we’re going to do everything we can to do it.”

One of the biggest questions around signing a new import to come into the NBL – for any team – surrounds how they will adapt to the competition. That’s why Harvey, who has been a known quantity in this competition for four years, was reportedly hotly pursued by teams around the NBL.

The strongest links of any team came with the Brisbane Bullets, who are looking to add high-character culture pieces to their emerging roster under Justin Schueller. Harvey, who is one of the competition’s most notorious good guys, would have fit that archetype perfectly.

He’s elected to stay in Wollongong though, and continue his growing relationship with the Hawks and their fans, and he says while he undertook his “due diligence” as a free agent, Harvey's happy everything fell into place for him to continue his tenure.

“I haven’t been a free agent in three years so I’d sort of forgotten what that process looks like, just weighing up all the options with your family, you just want to do what’s best and what makes the most sense.

“It was definitely, not a stressful time, but a chaotic time just trying to figure everything out. In the back of my mind I wanted to come back here if everything worked out and thankfully it did, so I have the opportunity to come here for three more years.

“After the season there were other teams that were interested, and there were teams in Europe that were interested. You have to take a moment to really sit back and lay out the pros and cons of each situation. At the same time, I wanted to come back here, the dominos fell in place and thankfully they did. It’s definitely not easy and there are decisions to make.

“I feel God guides every bit of it and this place as felt like home ever since I set foot in Australia, and I just love it here. I love the people, I love the league, and it’s been a great experience for me and my family.

“I love this city, I love this place and I definitely wanted to come back.”

Now the pieces are slotting into place for another Finals tilt under Justin Tatum, eyes are starting to lift and look forward as to what next season will look like at one of the NBL’s most resurgent clubs.

Tatum has singed on in a permanent capacity following his successful stint as interim head coach, William Hickey’s player option has been extended, while Wani Swaka Lo Buluk has also reportedly signed a new deal.

Todd Blanchfield and Mason Peatling will be entering the final season of the two-year deals they signed prior to NBL24, and Dan Grida and Sam Froling will both be returning as the longest-serving players at the club.

There are still signings to be made and water to go under the bridge, but it’s likely almost the entire roster from last season will be returning, bar import point guard Justin Robinson and NBA Draft hopeful and NBL24 Next Star AJ Johnson.

Harvey says that continuity with both the roster and the coach will be a crucial factor in any championship tilt.

“When you look at the champions of this league over the past years, you look at the roster, it’s guys who have been with each other for multiple years. If you want to win you have to have continuity, that’s the reality of it,” he said.

“You have to familiarise yourself with each other and what you want to do and that takes time.

“I’ve been able to play with Sam for four years now, Grida’s been here, we’ve got Davo and Wani, so it definitely helps when you have that continuity every year, and it’s hard to keep guys for long periods of time, and that’s the nature of basketball with guys moving onto different places.

“We’ve got almost the whole team back and I think that’s a huge bonus for us in the pursuit of a championship and that was a big factor in me coming back.

“As a team, there is no doubt in our team. Even last year when things weren’t going well for us there was an internal belief we could turn the ship around.

“You have to have belief first, and the head of the snake is ‘JT’ (Tatum). 

“To have a full year of prep with him, not him coming in halfway through the year and trying to cram everything in because there’s only so much you can do at that stage. To have a full year with him and a full pre-season and then head into the season, I’m excited and I know the team is excited about where we can go.”