“The amount of people that told me and came up to my face and said that I’d never come back…’” 

Angus Glover and the Illawarra Hawks are having an NBL season unlike any other.

Not only are they providing the platform for LaMelo Ball to be an NBA draft pick,  but they’re doing it amongst a number of injury woes, a first year coach in Matt Flynn and under the more eyeballs than ever before thanks to unprecedented NBL coverage this year.

The Lamelo Ball integration has seen the Hawks go through a myriad of trial and error options which have included players playing multiple positions and various roles.

One of the players significantly impact by the Lamelo Ball experiment has been Angus Glover the 21-year-old combo guard, who is not only trying to find his role alongside Lamelo Ball, but looking to overcome multiple ACL injuries which have all but derailed his NBL career thus far.

Glover who suffered two ACL injuries within eight months,  had logged minutes in only three NBL games prior to this season despite being a part of the Hawks NBL roster since 2017.

The potential and raw talent of Glover who prior to the injuries was selected in the 2017 Nike Hoop Summit and had turned down a scholarship at Saint Mary’s University to play in the NBL has seen both the Illawarra Hawks and the Eltham Wildcats (who recently signed Glover to a deal for the 2020 NBL1 season) offer him his own platform to become the player many believed him to be.

The last time he played NBL1 was as an Australian junior player and member of Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence (COE) where he played alongside current teammate Sam Froling and other young NBL talents like Callum Dalton, Alex Mudronja and Tom Fullarton.

The NBL1 opportunity with Eltham however will give Glover his first chance since injury be a focus point of a team and play without the minute and position limitations which playing alongside Lamelo Ball brings with it.

“I’m looking forward to playing with Eltham, the COE was a lot of youth, I was the oldest on the team and the AIS teaches you how to be a professional, Illawarra in the NBL is sort of similar to Eltham in terms of being a smaller club compared to others and I think it’s a good similarity”

Glover introduced himself to Eltham Wildcats basketball fans last season when he punished Josh Sykes with a vicious two-handed jam last NBL1 season so the Eltham faithful are already keen to watch Glover continue to grow while in a Wildcats jersey.

Last season Glover had been averaging 23 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists for COE in three games before being injured and this season it’s likely those numbers increase dramatically with Glover a dark horse chance for the NBL1 MVP award.

“I’m just hoping I can improve from last NBL1 season. Every team goes 11 deep in the NBL so it’s very tough every night who matter whoever you are” said Glover.

The Illawarra Hawks have only 10 games left before the end of the season it appears the team will likely end the year at the bottom of the ladder yet the financial boom felt by both the Hawks and the NBL due to the impact of Lamelo Ball makes this season a huge success for the Hawks.

 “Melo’s been awesome, being a great teammate, obviously he’s injured but his locker is next to mine at the home games and he’s been in my ear the whole time” said Glover.

Glover had some choice words for those people who continue to speculate that Ball is considering leaving Australia and the Hawks before the end of the season to focal on his NBA draft chances.

“One thing I hate is that people are speculating he’s not here but the thing is he’s in a moon boot. You don’t have to be physically here to be a teammate and that pisses me off, He’s 100% in.” 

While an ACL injury can be the death knell for a basketball player Glover refuses to let it be the case for his hoops journey.

“The amount of people that told me and came up to my face and said told me I’d never come back is ridiculous. The list of people to name is too big, it’s just too big” said Glover.

 ACL injuries have seen NBA players like Derrick Rose, Dante Exum and Michael Redd never be same recent rehabilitation programs undergone by players like Kristaps Porzingas and Jabari Parker have seen improvements in their strength and athleticism post-injury and Glover says he has had the same results.

“Yeah definitely, I don’t know if it’s you’re literally in the weight room 3, 4, 5 times a week so your legs get ridiculously strong. I think every time I’ve torn an ACL in my legs I’ve gotten more stronger than previous times.

As much as I don’t wish anyone to go through it, I think the best thing about overcoming something like is that you can overcome adversity, I took my frustration out in the weight room and I guess that makes me jump higher.”

Although an ACL injury removes a players ability to hit the court, it does give players windows to work on their fundamentals instead of rehabbing during the offseason. Something which Glover feels will not only help him in the NBL but will go towards his long term goals of playing in the NBA or Europe.

“When you rehab all you can do is work on your shooting and ball handling. At times it got frustrating when I watched the other guys on the next court running and playing games I was able to improve a number of areas of my game” said Glover.

“I want to try get to the NBA or Europe, and even put on a Boomers jersey if I can but obviously I’m here next year.”

Glover is signed with Illawarra until 2021, something Hawks coach Matt Flynn is extremely happy about. Although this season has been primarily about giving Lamelo Ball a platform to the NBA the team have been able to develop Glover as well as other young stars like Sam Froling, Emmett Naar and Sunday Dech who are all signed for next season which bodes well for the future of the Illawarra Hawks and their youthful core.

 “Gus brings the energy defensively, he’s showed the ability to guard star players like Casper Ware, Bryce Cotton, John Roberson and he’s a great athlete. That kid’s been through 3 knee reconstructions, and to get back to the level of conditioning and athleticism on where he’s at and his mental toughness is exceptional.“ 

There’s a long way to go for Angus Glover to reach his goal to play in the NBA or for the Boomers but one thing for sure, it can’t be any harder than what he’s already been through.

Angus Glover is currently averaging 4.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 17 games for the Illawarra Hawks this season.