There’s not a single player within Tatum's remit who’s not playing career-best basketball.  

When Justin Tatum first stepped into the Hawks head coaching role, the bulk of external discussion focused on what he didn’t have – a team with confidence, professional coaching experience, and seemingly no chance at getting the gig fulltime.   

“It’s performance-based” Tatum said when asked at the time if he coveted the role long-term. It was a polite question, the media scrum knowing the 45-year-old needed to produce something extraordinary to keep the job beyond his interim stint - and then he went and did it.   

A 12-7 run, and an epic semi-finals series against league heavyweights Melbourne United, rebooted belief in the franchise and revealed Tatum was not just another coach when it comes to the art of man management.  

Now at the end of his first full regular season as a professional, there’s not a single player within his remit who’s not playing career-best basketball.  

It makes those early doubts over his credentials so easily forgotten. Tatum was about the only one who didn’t have them back then but, far from leaving him under-qualified, he still feels the many years in high school gyms was the ace up his sleeve when it came time to play his professional hand.  

“That [experience] has a lot to do with it, because I dealt with different types of players, incoming freshman, transfers, guys who built themselves up over years to be as good as they could be as a senior,” Tatum said. 

“I've been able to see that development. I'm not comparing my guys to high school students, but there’s similarities in how I got to trust those guys and knowing how to relate to them.  

“It may not have been at the professional level, but the way I treated my programs in high school was professional enough for me until I got something like this [job].  

“As long as I put my work in and believed in how I build programs, and got players to gel and believe in something bigger than themselves, I knew I was going to find a way eventually. The talent was there, the support was there, all I had to do was work inside the gym and figure it out.”   

Now at the end of his first full regular season as a professional, there’s not a single player within his remit who’s not playing career-best basketball. While the likes of marquee recruit Trey Kell and co-skippers Tyler Harvey and Sam Froling have never played better, former bit part players Will Hickey and Mason Peatling, and youngster Lachy Olbrich, have all emerged as genuine game-breakers 

Tatum’s experience as a development coach has been key to that rise, especially when he opted to remain loyal to the group that “had his back” as an interim coach, rather than hit the free agency market. 

“Now being at the professional level, the physicality is there, the consistency in jump shots or whatever is there, I didn't really have to instil that in a Davo or a Mason,” Tatum said. 

“They were a piece of a puzzle in our program, and I just had to make sure that they knew where they fit and how they were going to excel. Anything else that they do is an addition, but I’ve been able to say, ‘hey, if you do XYZ really well, you can work on AB and C and it’ll be the best to both worlds. I just want to find a way to fit you in now’. 

“That was what we were able to instil in Mason, Lachy and guys like that and why they’re able to give us what they’re giving us right now.”  

The roster’s come far enough to secure a first-place finish to the regular season for the first time in the foundation club’s history, and with a game to spare. If Tatum’s not the Coach of the Year on the back of it, then water ain’t wet.  

Even the asterisk next to those claims – consecutive slip-ups against last-placed Cairns and 0-3 sweep at the hands of Adelaide – has a compelling flipside in a remarkable run against the league’s elite. 

Tatum’s yet to lose to Sydney as head coach, a run he’ll be looking to maintain this Friday in Wollongong. He’s also never suffered defeat to a Perth team featuring Bryce Cotton, leaving him undefeated at the hands of his club’s two most persistent tormentors.  

The Hawks are also 2-1 up over Melbourne this season, with a 30-point margin in their favour, while only two points separates them and Southeast Melbourne across the series claimed 2-1 by the Phoenix. 

The success against the big guns highlights something else Tatum didn’t have when he first took the reins … baggage. For better or worse, the blue-collar battlers satisfied with merely competing with the league heavyweights is the image many still hold of the franchise.

While his understanding of the foundation club’s unique history has deepened, merely competing is not the stick by which Tatum measures his expectations. Like everything else, it’s a product of his formative experiences as a coach. 

“I took over a program for the first time in 07 and the school hadn’t won more than five games in a whole season for I don't know how many years,” Tatum said. 

“It was a public school where you’ve got to walk through metal detectors on the way in and the principal said ‘we don’t worry about winning games, I just want you to keep structure there for the boys’. I said ‘well, we're going to do all those things’. 

“That was instilled in me early as a coach, so I didn’t come in thinking ‘man, I don't know what to do with the Perth’s, and the Melbourne's and the Sydney’s’. I came in thinking they're just like us, one of 10 teams in this league and I’ve got to find a way to beat them on the night. At the end of the day, we’re all judged off wins and losses and I'm oblivious to [the past]. I don’t worry about none of that. I just love being on the sideline doing what I'm doing.”   

Long-suffering Hawks fans desperate for just a second championship in more than four decades share in that love, and will be on hand at a sold-out WIN Entertainment Centre for Friday’s clash with the Kings. 

Wednesday’s victory over the Breakers in New Zealand has already sewn up top spot on the ladder, but the chance to sweep the Kings 4-0 doesn’t come along all that often. Given it will be the Hawks’ last outing ahead of a near three-week hiatus due to the play-in tournament and FIBA break, Tatum says its essential his team puts its feet up on a high. 

“Being at the top spot for the majority of the season hasn’t been a shocker, it’s something we worked for, then at some time during the season [I came to] expect it,” Tatum said. 

“We have a team that’s gelled together and is fearing nothing right now, so I’m excited about the opportunity to go up against Sydney and sweep them for the season. 

“We’ve set ourselves up for a longer break and we won't be able to experience it for another two and a half weeks, so this is the type of environment and the type of game we need to finish our season.”  

Tip-off at the WIN Entertainment Centre is at 7.30pm