Hawks will announce new NBL Next Star signing Justinian Jessup tomorrow
August 26, 2020
Max Darling
- Nationality: NZL
- Date of Birth: 30/09/00
- Place of Birth: Nelson (New Zealand)
- Position: F/C
- Height (CM): 199
- Weight (KG): 100
- Junior Assoc: None
- College: None
- NBL DEBUT: 18/01/21
- AGE AT DEBUT: 20
- LAST NBL GAME: 18/05/21
- AGE AT LAST GAME: 20
- NBL History: Illawarra 2021 | New Zealand 2024-25
- Championships: 0
- None
BIO: Max Darling was born in Nelson (New Zealand).
NBL EXPERIENCE
Max Darling made his NBL debut with the Illawarra Hawks at 20 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.
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, who ruptured the ACL in his right knee whilst playing in the state league. 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). Darling would appear in 14 games as a development player, averaging 0.7 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.2 assists across 14 games.
The Hawks returned to the playoffs for the first time in four years but were defeated in three games by defending champions Perth.
Max Darling currently plays for the New Zealand Breakers and has played 17 games in his NBL career. He has averaged 0.8 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.2 assists since entering the league in 2021.
CURRENT CONTRACT:
New Zealand Breakers – 3 Year Deal (2024-27)
3rd Year Team Option
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.
NBL TOTAL STATISTICS
| SEASON | AGE | TEAM | TEAM RECORD | GP | MINS | PTS | REB | AST | OR | DR | STL | BLK | TO | PF | FGM | FGA | FG% | 3PM | 3PA | 3P% | FTM | FTA | FT% | TS% | EFG% | HS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 24 | New Zealand | 2-0 (1) | 2 | 5.0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 40% | 0 | 2 | 0% | 1 | 2 | 50% | 42% | 0% | 5 |
| 2023-24 | 23 | New Zealand | 17-11 (2) | 1 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0 |
| 2020-21 | 20 | Illawarra | 28-8 (1) | 14 | 67.0 | 10 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 4 | 16 | 25% | 0 | 8 | 0% | 2 | 6 | 33% | 27% | 25% | 3 | Totals | 17 | 103 | 15 | 16 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 6 | 21 | 28.6% | 0 | 10 | 0.0% | 3 | 8 | 37.5% | 31% | 29% | 3 |
NBL PER GAME STATISTICS
| SEASON | AGE | TEAM | TEAM RECORD | GP | MINS | PTS | REB | AST | OR | DR | STL | BLK | TO | PF | FGM | FGA | FG% | 3PM | 3PA | 3P% | FTM | FTA | FT% | TS% | EFG% | HS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 24 | New Zealand | 2-0 (1) | 2 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 40% | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0% | 0.5 | 1.0 | 50% | 42% | 0% | 5 |
| 2023-24 | 23 | New Zealand | 17-11 (2) | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0% | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0% | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0 |
| 2020-21 | 20 | Illawarra | 28-8 (1) | 14 | 4.8 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 25% | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0% | 0.1 | 0.4 | 33% | 27% | 25% | 3 | Total | 17 | 6.1 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 28.6% | 0.0 | 0.0% | 0.6 | 37.5% | 31% | 29% | 3 |
CAREER HIGHS
| POINTS | REBOUNDS | ASSISTS | STEALS | BLOCKS | TURNOVERS | TRIPLE DOUBLES | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
|---|
FIBA EXPERIENCE
In 2022 Darling played for New Zealand during the FIBA World Cup Qualifying window and with the bronze medal winning Tall-Blacks side that competed at the FIBA Asia Cup in Indonesia.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
- New Zealand - Canterbury (2017-18, 2022, 2024)
In 2017 Max Darling played in New Zealand for the Canterbury Rams. He appeared in only two games and averaged 4 points per game.
Darling returned to the Rams in 2018 and averaged 9.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 0.7 assists across 18 games.
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