HOOPLA: Hawks captain not courting sympathy amid rough start

A look at his Instagram reveals daily affirmations. It's held him in good stead, from being a skinny walk-on for Eastern Washington University to leading the NCAA in scoring.

Through the pro career that's followed, positivity has taken him a long way. Simply put, he's a real one-with-the-universe type guy.

You have to wonder if his current predicament with the Hawks is the biggest test of that mindset.

For all his off-court chill, Hoopla can't recall seeing a fiercer competitor. He did everything but get the Hawks over the line against Sydney a week ago, grafting his way to 32 points - 17 in the final term.

Read more: Hawks season hits new low as red-hot Phoenix run riot

With his team taking another two steps back against Phoenix on Sunday, you had to feel for him and coach Jacob Jackomas fronting for another media conference facing the same the questions.

Fresh off what had the potential to be a corner-turning one-point loss to Sydney a week earlier, the capitulation to the Phoenix was clearly the hardest one to swallow for the ultra-competitive skipper.

"It was definitely a tough one," he said post-game.

"Our MO this year has been one good game and we kind of just tail off the second game. We put an emphasis on that, Jacob did, I did.

"The starts are big for us and we started OK, but it just went downhill quick. It was a snowball [effect] after that.

"We didn't give Jacob anything to coach, we didn't have that effort out there, so we need to take care of that.

"It's on me to do that, and I've got to be better just getting us ready for these kind of games, especially when we come off a good game.

"We've had some good stretches this year but we can't compound them to keep ourselves consistent. We have to be more consistent."

The cold hard fact of a 1-10 start doesn't tell the full story of the campaign, the loss of the two imports to season-ending injuries or the quick-fire integration of replacements.

Regardless, the Hawks were entitled to have picked up as many as three extra wins, but the heartbreak of close losses lingering into the subsequent games has been the true achilles heel.

There's no ready fix, but Harvey said one thing that does nothing for his team is sympathy, in-house or from outside the camp.

"It is tough, but nobody cares if it's tough," he said.

"We have to go on and do our job at the end of the day. It's like putting a puzzle piece together sometimes and obviously this season has been different for us.

"We've had our challenges but there are no excuses. We have to regroup, this team is not one that will give up. One thing we really rely on is our spirit.

"It is difficult to keep that spirit, but nobody on this team has dropped their head or is complaining about this, complaining about that.

"In the situation we're in now we're really leaning on that, but spirit can only get you so far. We have to go out there, we have to execute, we have to play well and we're not doing that right now.

"The spirits are always high, but we do need to put that effort on the court to get something for that spirit. Spirit's one thing, but we have to execute better."

Should the Hawks drop Monday's home clash with United in Wollongong it will take a monumental effort to avoid creating unwanted history in road clashes with the Phoenix and Taipans in less than 48 hours.

Thirteen straight losses would be nothing short of catastrophic but Harvey's keeping the faith.

"We don't like to point blame at anything, each of us players look in the mirror and realise we need to do something more to give our team a chance to win games," Harvey said.

"I honestly think we are going to do that. I think we're going to look back on this one day soon and we're going to be like 'wow, we were in a tough patch but we came out of it'.

"We're building character right now but we will get through this, I am certain of that. We just have to keep going."

You can only imagine the depth of belly laugh that reverberated around Sydney Kings HQ when former club owner Harvey Lister urged the reigning champions to consider giving up exclusivity in the country's largest city.

Lister, who negotiated the deal that runs until 2026 when owner and chairman of the Kings in 2016, told News Corp this week that it was time for the Kings and NBL to loosen those reins and allow a second Sydney team to enter the league prior to 2026.

It's even more interesting given Lister is the chairman and chief executive of ASM Global, the largest venue operator in the country with a list that includes the Kings' home of Qudos Bank Arena.

Hawks fans obviously take a keen interest in any talk of an inevitable second team in Sydney given the persistent talk of their club being relocated, sold, or both.

Neither is in the Kings interest. A second team in Sydney would infringe on their monopoly and, were it to occur at the expense of the Hawks, the Kings lose their fiercest and most storied rivalry.

Read more: 'Neither publicised nor hidden' the story behind who owns the Illawarra Hawks

Far from surrendering Sydney before they have to, the Kings will no doubt use the next four years to broaden its reach - as its already doing through ever-growing south-western Sydney - to further fortify it against a team starting from scratch with no readymade fanbase.

Never backward in coming forward, always entertaining Kings owner Paul Smith provided a not-so-subtle hint as to his position in response to the story on Twitter.

"I thank Mr Lister for unsolicited opinions and advice about how to run this franchise, so freely offered publicly" he tweeted.

"Given we are in such a sharing environment I now look forward to similarly representing my own, and the views of he Sydney Kings fans, about how to run Qudos Bank Arena."

You've got to love a budding feud, but it's certainly a watch this space scenario. Comments like Lister's are never just pulled out of thin air.

It'll be interesting to see if those Hawks relocation drums start beating louder from here; exclusivity clauses or not.

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