BIO: Hunter Clarke was born in Adelaide (SA) Clarke received a scholarship to attend the Australian Institute of Sport (Canberra) in 2018. He spent one year there and played for the program’s state league team.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Hunter Clarke made his NBL debut with the Brisbane Bullets at 21 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

Hunter Clarke signed a development player deal with Brisbane for NBL23, after the Bullets finished second last the season prior. Brisbane had loaded up by adding Boomers big man Aron Baynes and veteran guard Tyler Johnson who had been teammates while playing in the NBA with Phoenix.

Devondrick Walker (via NBL1) was signed as a second import and local talent Harry Froling (via Illawarra), Gorjok Gak (via Europe) and DJ Mitchell (via NBL1), son of former Bullets import Mike Mitchell, were also brought into the squad to complement the returning core of Jason Cadee, Tyrell Harrison, Tanner Krebs and captain Nathan Sobey.

The Bullets off-season recruiting saw many in the media pencil them in as a top four team but with the health of both Sobey coming back from a knee injury that had kept him on the sidelines for half of NBL22 and Baynes returning to the court after a neck injury suffered at the Olympics almost left him paralysed, many questioned their ability to stay healthy.

Six games into the season and the Bullets had yet to win a game. Baynes (11.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.0 assists) was far from the NBA player he was 12 months earlier and Sobey (15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 4.6 assists) recorded his lowest numbers for points and rebounds in five years.

Brisbane then recorded back-to-back wins, both against Illawarra. The first victory (82-56) on the back of a 17 point, 14 rebound effort from Baynes and the second (86-61) thanks to Sobey, scoring 14 first quarter points and 22 first half points, both career highs. The wins marking the first time Brisbane had won consecutive matches by at least 25-points since February 2007.

A two point victory over a strong Tasmanian team (74-72) gave them a three game winning streak, but just when things started to look positive, the decision was made to release underperforming import Walker (9.0 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists) and fire head coach James Duncan.

Walker was replaced by Andrew White (7.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 0.7 assists) and Duncan was replaced by General Manager Sam Mackinnon as interim coach, a move that lasted just three games before assistant coach and former Townsville Crocodile Greg Vanderjagt took the reins for the remainder of the season but the best of the Bullets season was behind them.

Brisbane finished second last again (8-20) with three of their eight wins coming against Illawarra, who recorded their worst season ever.

Clarke appeared in only four games for the season, failing to score a point.

Hunter Clarke played one season in the NBL.

Dan Boyce (815 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.