Harvey’s Underdog Story
Written By
Jacalyn Holmes
His signature floaters and deep threes have become somewhat of a trademark for the 6’4 guard, who made the play of the year for making a near half court buzzer beater in the team’s win against the New Zealand Breakers.
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After playing in Europe and the NBA’s G League, Harvey was recruited by Hawks’ previous head coach Brian Goorjian to join the team in Illawarra on a one-year deal.
When Harvey entered the league, he made an immediate impact, averaging 20.4 points (third in the NBL), 3.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 steals, was named in the All-NBL First Team (2021) and finished runner up in NBL MVP voting.
After his breakout season in 2021 Harvey signed a new 3-year deal with the club and has since averaged 18.3 points, 3 rebounds and 2.8 assists over 96 games played.
Seeing Harvey’s success now, it’s hard to believe that he has an underdog story that starts with him almost not playing Division I basketball, until he was offered the opportunity of a lifetime.
“Coming out of high school I had zero scholarships to play, so I was actually going to play Division III basketball,” said Harvey in a recent interview with Sporting News.
Harvey had plans on playing for Whitworth University’s Division III program under coach Jim Hayward, but two weeks before Harvey was set to arrive, Hayward got a new role at Eastern Washington.
Thankfully this provided Harvey with the opportunity he had always wanted, to follow Hayward to Eastern and join a Division I program, except with one catch, he had to be a walk-on.
“My goal was to play Division I basketball, so I saw that as an opportunity to fulfil my dream as a kid, so I did that. I walked on.”
Harvey spent the first two years of his college career on the bench waiting patiently for a chance to prove himself, which came when his team were down by 13 points, and he got called to take to the court for the remaining four minutes.
“I got that opportunity to go in and play the last minutes of the game, ended up going crazy, I think I had five or six threes in that span, we ended up coming back and winning that game in overtime, and to be honest, my life hasn’t been the same ever since that moment.”
Harvey went on to be awarded a scholarship the next season, lead the entire nation in Division I scoring and three-pointers, won the Big Sky Conference tournament title and qualify his school for March Madness.
Following his impressive season Harvey took a chance and declared himself for the 2015 NBA draft, at which he was picked 51st overall by the Orlando Magic.
Harvey then spent a year in the G-League with Erie BayHawks (2016), after which he spent a season in Italy (2017) and then France (2018).
“To be honest I didn’t have a tremendous year in France, so I didn’t know if I was going to get another job overseas,” said Harvey when he spoke with Aussie Hoopla on the topic of his career prior to the NBL.
“I really wasn’t having a great career professionally if we’re just going to keep things honest. I did okay in the G-League, I did okay in Italy, I did okay in France, so I really had to take a bet on myself and go back to the G-League to see what I could do.”
Harvey’s last crack at making it to the NBA was with Memphis’ G-League team, where his season followed the same track as his college career; on the bench with little to no court time until he was again given the chance to prove himself.
“We had about three or four guys get called up (to the NBA) and then I was the only guard left, so I ended up starting at the point guard position at about 12 games in and I didn’t look back.”
Harvey was hot, and with a 58-point game under his belt it became almost certain that he would be called up to the NBA for the following season, until disaster struck in the form of a broken foot just one week out from his call up.
“That was probably one of the toughest times in my career. Breaking your foot when you’re having a tremendous year, you kind of start questioning, because you’re so close to that goal and you’re so close to what you dreamt of as a kid.”
Things worked out for Harvey though, when after recovering from his injury and spending some time playing in Germany, he was contacted by Hawks’ Head Coach at the time, Brian Goorjian, to come down under.
When asked about his relationship with his previous coach Harvey has nothing but good things to say.
“After one conversation I knew that he knew what he was talking about. He took a chance on me, and now he’s like a mentor for me. We still talk once a month and it’s a relationship that I’ll cherish forever.”
If there’s anything that Harvey’s story is proof of it’s that determination and persistence truly do pay off, and as someone who has faced plenty of challenges in his career Hawks fans should feel reassured in his ability to lead the team in the upcoming Hungry Jacks NBL24 season.
“One thing I’ve realised is that usually when you go through those tough times you figure out what you are made of, so credit to Coach Jacob and our whole team. Everyone stuck through it until the end and one thing I know is that the storm always ends.”
After the team’s challenges in NBL23, with four injured imports and only three wins, he is a true believer of what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
“I know that next season is going to be a good one for us. With all that we went through and the battle scars that we got and the lessons that we’ve learned throughout that process are going to help us tremendously.”
Hawks NBL24 campaign will tip off against the Sydney Kings on Saturday, September 30.
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