BIO: Akoldah Gak was born in Sydney (NSW) in 2002 to parents who had fled South Sudan and moved to Australia. There he attended St Dominic’s College and also began playing basketball with the Penrith basketball junior program. In 2018, he received a scholarship to attend Blair Academy (New Jersey) in the United States through a basketball pipeline that was established by professional basketball player and Blair alumni, Luol Deng.

Gak’s family chose for him to begin his career in the NBL and develop in Australia due to the global uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic as he prepared for the NBA Draft.

FAMILY: Akoldah’s brother, Gorjok Gak also played 47 games in the NBL. Gak has two older brothers who played college basketball. Gorjok for the California Baptist Lancers and Deng for the Miami Hurricanes.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Akoldah Gak made his NBL debut with the Illawarra Hawks at 18 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

On 12 October 2020, Gak signed a three-year deal with the Illawarra Hawks of the National Basketball League (NBL). He was rostered as a development player during the 2020/21 NBL season before he became a contracted player for the remainder of his tenure.

In April 2020, the Hawks’ season began with the team falling into voluntary administration, with creditors voting to liquidate the Hawks one month later. The NBL, however, vowed to keep the club alive, and on 17 June 2020, the NBL announced that Dorry Kordahi, Bryan Colangelo and Michael Proctor had been awarded the license for the club.

Under the agreement with the new ownership, the team has renamed The Hawks in a effort to broaden the team’s appeal in New South Wales and shortly after, it was announced the team had added Brian Goorjian as its head coach.

With all players having to renew their contracts with the new ownership, Sam Froling and Emmett Naar were the only players from the previous season’s full-time roster to return as the new ownership looked to build a almost entirely new roster. This began with the signing of Deng Adel, who had just finished a short stint with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and Cam Bairstow, who had just returned to Australia after spending a season in Lithuania which was cut short due to COVID-19, who were both part of the Australian Boomers national squad. Justinian Jessup, who had signed a Next Star deal with the NBL, was also added to the roster and was placed in Illawarra on a two-year contract, while imports Tyler Harvey and Justin Simon were also brought in to be the focal points of the team’s offence and defence respectively.

The Hawk’s season began with plenty of off-court drama. First, it was the omission of AJ Ogilvy and Tim Coenraad, both fan-favourite players and key players from last season. As a result of injuries, both players were later added to the squad as injury replacements.

Next was the outpouring of fans calling for the return of ‘Illawarra’ to the team’s name, something which was front page news in Wollongong, clearly outweighing the Hawk’s 4-0 start to the season.

In early February, after a campaign by the new ownership group where more membership numbers and corporate support contributed, the NBL reinstated the Illawarra name ahead of the club’s first home game.

While the Hawks fought for, and retained their name, they faced several further challenges, the first being Bairstow, who after missing nine games with a minor hip issue was ruled out for the rest of the season and Daniel Grida. Add to that the struggles of Adel (5.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2 assists), who was never able to make a impact in the NBL, requested a release from his contract mid-way through the season, in a attempt to prevent any harm to his future NBA chances.

From round 16, the Hawks took flight and won eight of their last 10 matches to cement a spot in the finals, qualifying for the postseason for the first time since 2017.

Scoring didn’t come easy to the Hawks, who fell from averaging 90.5 over the first 10 games to finishing with the league’s lowest points average in the league with 81.5. Only four Hawks players averaged points in the double-digits, Tyler Harvey (20 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.4 steals), Justinian Jessup (13.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.2 steals), Cam Bairstow (11.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.2 assists) and Sam Froling (11.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks). The Hawks also had the worst field goal percentage of the league, sitting at 42.5 percent on the season (47.8 percent from the two-point range and 33.2 percent from deep). Illawarra’s free throw shooting also came in at 69.4 percent.

Despite the challenges, Illawarra didn’t fall below fifth place for the entire season and eventually finished third (20-16).

Gak would see limited playing opportunities as development player, appearing in only four games and scoring a total of four points.

The club powered through and made their first finals series in four years, where they were defeated in three games by the defending champions, Perth, ending their playoff run.

2021/22
Gak was elevated into the Hawk’s full-time roster in 2021, after appearing in four games as a development player the season prior.

After nearly knocking off the Perth Wildcats and progressing to the Finals of NBL21, the Illawarra Hawks look primed and ready to progress even further in the upcoming season.

After a brilliant debut season, Tyler Harvey, the team’s leading scorer, was inked to a three-year deal and paired with import additions Antonius Cleveland and Travis Trice. Before the season began Trice was released from his contract after refusing to receive the COVID vaccine. Xavier Rathan-Mayes was signed as his replacement. Other additions included Harry Froling (via Brisbane) joining his brother Sam in Hawks colours and Duop Reath (via Serbia) joining the team after a impressive Boomers campaign.

Coming into the league off the back of a Bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics and ambitions to get into the NBA, the Reath started the season on fire averaging 19.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game in his first four games. Star guard Tyler Harvey however, found his second year in the NBL a little more challenging, seeing his scoring numbers dip from 20.4 points per game, to 16.1 but still led the team in scoring.

Club legend Tim Coenraad (3.9 points and 2.2 rebounds) was not included in the team’s full roster, but was later named as an injury replacement. He was elevated to full roster once again due to a season ending knee injury suffered by Daniel Grida.

Other notables for the Hawks saw a significant improvement from Next Star Justinian Jessup (13.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.2 steals) in his second season, Sam Froling (8.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks) bounced back from a injury plagued season to become a major part of the frontcourt rotation while Gak saw limited playing opportunities, appearing in 8 games and averaging 1.9 points and 0.6 rebounds.

Illawarra finished the season in second place (19-9), before suffering another disappointing exit in the semifinals, this time by by cross-town rivals, Sydney. Reath (15.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks) collected the Hawks MVP award at the end of the season while Antonius Cleveland (14.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.1 blocks) was awarded the Damian Martin Trophy for Defensive Player of the Year and also named to the All-NBL First Team.

2022/23
After two straight seasons of reaching the NBL semi finals, head coach Brian Goorjian would exit the Hawks, signing a deal to coach the Bay Area Dragons in the newly established East Asia Super League. Goorjian’s longtime assistant Jacob Jackomas would be elevated in the role of the head coach and look to continue the success of the prior two seasons. However, this wasn’t to be, as Illawarra would see a mass exodus of talent after the coaching change, retaining only Tyler Harvey and Sam Froling from the Hawk’s main rotation. Duop Reath (to Lebanon) and Justinian Jessup (to Spain) heading overseas, Antonius Cleveland (to Adelaide), Xavier Rathan-Mayes (to Melbourne), Harry Froling (to Brisbane) signing with other NBL team’s and the retirement of longtime Hawk, AJ Ogilvy.

Illawarra would replace the outgoing talent with locals Deng Deng (via Brisbane), Wani Swaka Lo Buluk (via Perth) and Mangok Mathiang, who had been playing in the NBL1 state competition as he recovered from a long-term injury before finalising the roster with imports Justin Robinson and George King.

The Hawks would split their opening games, losing to rivals Sydney (97–106) and then defeating South East Melbourne (85–72) behind a strong showing from Tyler Harvey (22 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists). The Hawks would then embark on a injury-riddled season which would see Justin Robinson require surgery on a meniscus tear in his knee, suffered in the Hawks opening game. Kevin White (via Perth) was brought in as a short-term injury replacement. Nine games later, Illawarra also made the decision to release George King (10.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 0.9 assists), who had struggled to overcome a persistent lower leg injury.

Former New Zealand guard Peyton Siva (9.3 points, 6.3 assists and 1.6 steals) would be brought in as a replacement for import Justin Robinson but managed only 11 games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury against Adelaide, adding further salt into the wounds for the struggling Hawks.

By mid November, the Hawks still hadn’t won another game (1-9), and after playing through the first third of the season relying on Lachie Dent (4.9 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.8 assists), Wani Swaka Lo Buluk (4.9 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 0.9 assists) and injury replacement player Davo Hickey (4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.0 steals). Shortly after, former Perth Wildcats import Michael Frazier II was signed to help cover the load.

In December, the Hawks were able to snap their nine-game losing streak and defeat Melbourne (93-79), who entered the game on a 0-4 losing streak. Sam Froling (29 points) dominated for the Hawks, scoring 16 in the first quarter at a efficient 64% from the field. Michael Frazier II (16 points) and Tyler Harvey (15 points) also played key roles in the win.

After appearing in 8 games, Frazier suffered a broken arm during a game against Adelaide, after colliding with two 36ers players and miss the remainder of the season. Frazier (17.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.3 assists) was the Hawk’s highest-scoring player at the time.

It wasn’t until the third last game of the season that Illawarra registered another win, knocking off New Zealand in a nail-biter (78–76). A final minute Tom Abercrombie steal and dunk put the Breakers up with just seconds remaining, but a Tyler Harvey (25 points and 3 steals) match-winning heave sealed the win and produced one team’s highest moments of the season.

Illawarra (3-25) would finish the year with the worst record in club history. Tyler Harvey (18.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.5 steals) led the team in scoring, Sam Froling (14 points, 8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists) won the Hawk’s MVP award, while Gak appeared in 13 games and averaged 1.2 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 0.4 assists for the season. He was also be selected as the Hawk’s Player’s Player Award at the end of the year.

Akoldah Gak currently plays for the Cairns Taipans and has played 53 games in his NBL career. He has averaged 3.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 0.3 assists since entering the league in 2021.

CURRENT CONTRACT:

Cairns Taipans – 2 Year Deal (2023-25)

Dan Boyce (811 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.