William Hickey

Hawks ID: 227

Before he was chasing rebounds, William Hickey was chasing a rugby league dream. He grew up idolising Greg Inglis, moving between his grandparents' homes in Sydney, Cowra and Walgett as a kid, the kind of upbringing that teaches you to adapt fast and find your footing wherever you land. Basketball wasn't the plan. It found him anyway.

The Hawks' First Look

Most fans won't remember this, but Illawarra clocked Hickey years before he ever wore the jersey. In 2019, he suited up for the Australian Indigenous All Stars against the Hawks at the Snakepit, in a preseason fixture where a teenage LaMelo Ball was the name drawing every set of eyes in the building. Ball got the headlines that night. Hickey was the one who stood out on the other side of the floor.

From Redfern to the Rotation

As a teenager, Hickey settled in Sydney's Redfern, attending nearby Trinity Grammar School and catching the eye of the Koorie Academy as a highly promising basketball prospect. It was there the game took hold. He moved south and went through development player stints at South East Melbourne Phoenix and Melbourne United, with an unproven outside shot and a reputation for turnovers that had scouts unconvinced he'd stick. The NBL's Indigenous player pathway helped keep him in the league long enough to find his game. He arrived at Illawarra in 2022/23, and it took until the back half of 2023/24 when Justin Tatum took the coaching reigns for it to click, when he leaned into his strengths as a cutter, defender and athlete and cracked the rotation for good, six years after the Hawks first saw what he could do.

Full Circle

Hickey is one of four Indigenous players in the current Hawks squad, alongside Biwali Bayles, Johny Narkle and Kobe McDowell-White. During Indigenous Round, Narkle, Hickey and Bayles became the first trio of Indigenous Australians to share the court for one NBL team in the same game. Hickey's own path through the pathway system that once gave him a foothold has become part of what the club now points to as a genuine commitment, not just a slogan.

Champion's Stat Line

In the game that clinched the 2024/25 NBL Championship, Hickey delivered 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. It was the performance of a player who'd finally arrived. He backed it up in 2025/26 with career-highs across the board and appearances for the Australian Boomers in both 2024 and 2025.

In NBL26 Round 8, Hickey had 19 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists, recording the first triple-double for the Hawks since LaMelo Ball in NBL20.

Numbers

• 2024/25 championship-clinching game – 21 pts, 10 reb, 8 ast
• 2025/26 (29 games): 12.5 pts, 5.7 reb, 6.0 ast

113 games for the Hawks, 29th on the club's all-time games played list as of the end of NBL26. 138 games across his full NBL career.

Chasing the League

In March 2026, Hickey signed with the South Bay Lakers, the Los Angeles Lakers' G League affiliate, while remaining contracted to Illawarra through the 2026/27 season.  

From the kid at the Snakepit standing out next to LaMelo Ball in 2019, to a Boomer chasing an NBA pathway of his own, it's the clearest sign yet of where his trajectory is heading. Whatever happens on that stage, Illawarra was where the door first opened, twice.