Illawarra Hawks players and support staff celebrate after the Championship win. Photo: Wollongong City Council.
As the dust settles between the mountains and the sea, and my eyes finally begin to dry, I can’t help but reflect on the momentous NBL Championship win the Illawarra Hawks brought home for the 2024/25 season.
The grit and perseverance of the Hawks reflects the spirit of the city: a once industrial town still filled with a hardworking and proud community that’s determined to not be overlooked nor defined by its highway connection to the Big Smoke.
The Hawks’ first NBL Championship in 24 years is a win that I’ve been waiting for most of my life.
Some of my earliest memories are at Hawks games, watching Tomma Hawk strut the arena before I could understand what was happening on-court, and stomping my feet to Queen’s We Will Rock You.
I remember attending their post-win parade in 2001, by my parents’ sides in the much less-developed streets of Wollongong.
Years later, I studied at university in Sydney, and was met by silver spoon-clad peers who not so much asked but scoffed, “You’re from Wollongong?”, as if living a whole hour away made me less than.
I never understood why I shouldn’t be proud of coming from a place that not only had beaches to rival those deemed most iconic for tourists, but that has a community that is resolute in itself and what it stands for.
This Championship is not just a win for the Hawks, it’s for everyone who’s dared stick it to the man, and who’s had [coach Justin] Tatum’s courage in calling out injustice in a world that often feels rigged against you.
Faced with years of financial struggles in a league loaded with fat wallets, the Hawks have shown that winning isn’t about how much money you have or how many celebrities sit courtside at your games, it’s about how much spirit you have. And what Illawarra has never lacked is spirit.
To the fans who sat among empty seats, week in and week out, supporting our team when they were struggling, to the newcomers swayed by the basketball hype, and to everyone who’s proud to be from Wollongong: this one’s for us.
It’s for those who never give up, never lose hope, and get back up when they’re knocked down. This championship isn’t just about basketball – it’s about strength, guts, perseverance, and the people that are by your side whether you win or lose.
Post-game, I sat in shock. Not because I didn’t believe a Hawks Championship was possible, but because after years of hoping, praying, and holding my breath, I just didn’t know what to do with myself when it finally happened.
To my fellow Hawks fans far and wide – how lucky are we to have something so worth the pain, so worth hoping for, and so worth waiting 24 years to experience?
And if basketball games elicit such emotion and passion, imagine how much can be achieved by continuing that fighting spirit in our everyday lives.
This year showed all the Hawks’ doubters, naysayers and disbelievers what we Hawks fans have always known to be true: the Illawarra Hawks are winners in hard work and determination, and now they’re winners on paper, too.
There’s nothing left to say, except … we love you ’cause you’re from Wollongong.
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