Hyrum Harris leads the way

Harris took the Hawke’s Bay Hawks to the NZNBL final 6, where the side fought from 17 points down heading into the last quarter to take the game to overtime where they fell to eventual champions the Canterbury Rams.

Harris performed strong across the board throughout the season, finishing with averages of 13.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks.

In his first year leading the side, Harris said the season was a different but good experience.

“It was a bit of a different experience this year being the captain. It's a whole new role, I've never experienced it before, but it was good,” he said.

“It was a lot of learning, a lot of lessons. We had our ups and had our downs, but eventually made it to playoffs were in a good position to win it but unfortunately, we just didn't get past that first round.”

“From where we were midway to where we ended, it was a pretty good success. Like our last stint, our last four or five games was pretty good for us.”

Harris said kept in touch with Perth Wildcats coaches throughout the season to help fine tune his game in preparation for the upcoming NBL23 season.

“I think me personally I was just trying to not trying to shy away from what I do,” he said.

“But I tried to work on things that Gerard and Keegan and the coaches have told me that they really want me to do when I'm at the Wildcats.”

“Just trying to fine tune those things so that when I get over there I can kind of be used to doing it already.”

With impressive stats on both offense and defence, Harris said both sides are a focus of his game.

“I enjoy playing both sides, I don't just like scoring all the points or I don't like blocking all the shots,” he said.

“I like to be in the middle on both sides and that's kind of where I play best at, is doing well on the defensive end and helping my team get in transition and scoring.”

“I really like to play defence and offense comes from playing defence, so it kind of flows into the other.”

After an up and down season, Harris said securing their place in the Final 6 was a highlight of the season.

“Probably securing our spot in the finals,” he said

“Maybe like midway through the season we're kind of just like questioning if we were going to make playoffs.”

“There were all those doubts that everybody had and then for us to win that final game and secure our spot playoffs was a huge sigh of relief to know we achieved a goal a lot of people didn't think we were capable of.”

Currently in Japan with the New Zealand Tall Blacks travelling squad in preparation for the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Harris is working toward making the final 12 to represent the team on the World stage for the first time.

“I've always done like Asia Cup qualifiers or World Cup qualifiers, but I've never been a part of the World Cup squad,” he said.

“It's just always an awesome opportunity to be around those that love the country and love to represent their country to the best of their abilities.”

“When you have guys who have been around the Tall Blacks program you can pick their brain and kind of ask them questions and see how they act, and they just show you what it's like to wear the black singlet with pride.”

“Even if I'm only there for the camp I'm still always grateful to be a part of it.”