BIO: Greg Hubbard was born in Wollongong (NSW) and began playing basketball as a junior with the Wagga Wagga basketball program.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Greg Hubbard made his NBL debut with the Illawarra Hawks at 20 years of age. He scored eight points in his first game.

Greg Hubbard, a product of Wagga Wagga, joined the Illawarra Hawks in 1987 as a 21-year-old and averaged 11 points in 28 minutes per game en route to claiming the NBL Rookie of the Year Award (the first Hawk to do so).

1988
In 1988, Hubbard averaged 12.6 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.9 assists, playing a key role in the Hawks rotation, helping the team finish reach a seventh place finish in the regular season with a 11-13 record.

1989
Hubbard had a breakout season in 1989 where he averaged 20 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 6.7 assists. To this day Greg is the only Australian born guard to average over 20 points for the Hawks and along with Geordie McLeod, is the only Australian to average 7 assists for the Hawks over a season (Hubbard did this twice).

1990
During the 1990 season Hubbard averaged 17.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 7 assists and helped the Hawks finish with a record of 13-13 and ended the regular season in eighth place.

1992
In 1992 Hubbard averaged 19.2 points and 5.9 rebounds, and helped guide the Hawks to a eighth place finish in the regular season with a 13-11 record.

1991
The 1991 season saw Hubbard average 14.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 6 assists during a season where the Hawks struggled against the competition.

On the 27th of July, 1991 MacDonald was a part of the highest scoring game in NBL history when the Illawarra Hawks lost to the Melbourne Tigers 186-158 in a game where a total of 344 points were scored. MacDonald contributed 13 points himself and added 6 rebounds, and 2 assists to the stat sheet as well. Remarkably the Hawks shot 76% from the field, which remains the highest shooting percentage ever recorded by a team in a losing effort.

The Hawks managed only six wins this season, finishing with a 6-20 record.

1992
In 1992, Hubbard averaged 19.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 6 assists, playing a key role in the Hawks rotation, helping the team finish reach a eighth place finish in the regular season with a 13-11 record.

SYDNEY KINGS
1993
In 1993, Greg left the Hawks to play for the team’s crosstown rivals, the Sydney Kings. Playing alongside Dwayne McClain, Ken McClary and Damian Keogh, Hubbard was the perfect fit, averaging 17.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.8 assists but the team endured a turbulent season and finished in 11th spot with a 11-15 record.

1994
After three seasons of import duo Dwayne McClain and Ken McClary, Kings coach Bob Turner chose to go in a different direction in 1994. With rumours of McClain’s rise in popularity leading to difficulties in coaching the star, the decision was made not to re-sign McLain and McClary and find younger talent to replace them. Coach Bob Turner signed swingman Mario Donaldson, who he spotted playing with Omaha during the 1993 CBA championship season.

He paired Donaldson with a relatively unknown forward, Leon Trimmingham, who had played at Briar Cliff University and was recommended to Turner by former Hobart coach Dr David Atkins.

The majority of the remaining roster was retained, with the only major loss being Tony De Ambrosis (to Gold Coast), who was replaced with young guns Neil Turner and Brad Williams.

Sydney came out on fire to start the season. With Trimmingham, whose nightly pyrotechnics drew crowds to the Kingdome like moths to a flame, leading the team in scoring and Donaldson’s deadly outside scoring and lockdown defence, Sydney defeated South East Melbourne Magic on opening night and won three games in a row before losing their first game of the season in Perth.

At the halfway mark (8-3), the Kings looked like a title contender, but the lack of experience amongst the roster started to show, and Sydney went 8-7 for the remainder of the year and narrowly scraped into the playoffs in seventh place (16-10).

Trimmingham (27.3 points, 10.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.2 blocks) led the team in points, rebounds and blocks while becoming a fan favourite across the league. He also finished the season second in scoring behind league MVP Andrew Gaze. Donaldson (22.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.8 steals) and Greg Hubbard (18.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists) provided the additional scoring as Sydney drew second-placed North Melbourne in the first round of the playoffs. Sydney entered the series as decided underdogs, especially given that North Melbourne had whipped them in two regular-season meetings. However, in Game One of the series, the Kings had other ideas. In front of a disbelieving Monday night crowd of 9,092, Sydney rocketed out of the blocks, taking advantage of some fatigue from the Giants, who were playing their third road game in four days. But the home team showed no mercy, hitting one long bomb after another, going on a 11-0 run in the first 71 seconds. At the end of the first period, the Kings were up 43-25 and the Giants simply didn’t know what had hit them. The Kings kept firing away from the outside and kept knocking them down, and by halftime, the game was over. The Kings received a standing ovation as they returned to the changing rooms with a 26 point lead at halftime (77-51).

The second half was a mere formality as the purple and gold cruised to the win, but the biggest story to come out of the game was Sydney’s unbelievable performance from the perimeter, with the team setting a franchise playoff record by knocking down 15 three-pointers from just 18 attempts – a success rate beyond the arc of a absurd 83.3%. It was arguably the greatest three-point shooting exhibition ever by a team in a NBL playoff game.

The Kings finished the game having hit 15 of 18 three-point shots. Greg Hubbard was the chief destroyer, going eight of nine from long distance and finishing with 32 points in just 28 minutes of court time, and he had plenty of help. Mario Donaldson went three of four from the outside as part of his 27-point performance, and co-captain Damian Keogh chipped in with four threes at 80% in his near triple-double of 18 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

Once the series returned to Melbourne the Giants returned to their winning ways, defeating the Kings in game two (112-91) and game three (104-95). North Melbourne would then go on to win the NBL Championship.

ILLAWARRA HAWKS
1995
In 1995 Hubbard suffered a back injury which severely hampered the rest of his career. He averaged 11 points for the Kings before returning to Illawarra where he would play his final season of NBL basketball in limited minutes.

1996
He averaged 6 points in 16 minutes per game in 1996, the lowest minutes of his NBL career and retired the following season.

1996
After losing both coach Alan Black and their leading scorer and rebounder from the past four seasons in Melvin Thomas the Hawks looked to rebuild in 1996. Although many felt the void left by Thomas and Black heading to NSW rivals Sydney would be difficult to replace, incoming coach Brendan Joyce had just the player in mind. New arrival Marcus Timmons surprised everyone by being one of the premier forwards in the competition, proving to be a more than adequate replacement for Thomas. Timmons led the team in points (21.9 ppg), rebounds, (12.3 rpg), steals (2.3 spg) and blocks (1.0 bpg) but still the Hawks struggled to find wins during the year and finished in 10th place behind a 9-17 record.

Import point guard Andre LaFleur in his sixth season had begun to show clear signs of slowing down, averaging 18.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 6.9 assists, all career lows. Hawks legend Greg Hubbard also struggled to overcome a back injury which saw him average 6 points in 16 minutes per game (lowest minutes of career) and retire at the end of the season.

Hubbard would finish the year averaging 6.4 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game.”

Greg Hubbard played ten seasons in the NBL. He averaged 14.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in 253 NBL games.

CAREER RANKINGS:
– 42nd in total steals

Dan Boyce (798 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.