Any ray of sunshine is welcomed by a club languishing at the bottom of the NBL ladder.
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For the Illawarra Hawks, that ray of sunshine is the return to the court of fan-favourite Dan Grida, who made his long-awaited return to action at WIN Entertainment Centre last Friday night against the Sydney Kings.
The 24-year-old played his first game of the season, after recovering from a high-grade hamstring tear suffered in September, which came after he had recovered from a second ACL tear.
Unsurprisingly the Wollongong faithful cheered loudly throughout Grida's almost five-minute stint on court which yielded two defensive rebounds.
Two days later in enemy territory against Melbourne United it was his team-mates who were celebrating after the popular Grida scored his first basket in almost three years.
Even head coach Jacob Jackomas celebrated the two-point shot from a man he urged last-season to seek psychological help to deal with the mental toll of fighting back from all his injuries.
Grida happily sought counselling and combined with his bottomless work ethic, is now back on court much to the pleasure of Jackomas and his players.
"It's a great story but we have to be patient with Dan, he hasn't played in three years," Jackomas said.
"He is definitely a talent for us and something the club has invested in but he needs time.
"Regardless of the negatives we are going through right now, that kid has had injury after injury after injury. If he is playing basketball right now it has got to be a positive for this ball club leading into the future.
If he is playing basketball right now it has got to be a positive for this ball club leading into the future.
- Jacob Jackomas
"So if we can get him in this thing where he can get this monkey off his back, and we have to do it slow because it is not normal.
"He has been breaking down at the last minute of practice, there has been a lot of that, so there is some very strict limitations on him, which is obviously hard to do from the coaching side and frustrating for him and frustrating for his team-mates but for our ball club it is all positive long term.
"We've invested in him and we will keep investing in him and we will keep going with him until we can get him back to the player that he needs to be."
The Hawks head into Thursday's clash away to Tasmania JackJumpers with a 2-14 win/loss record but Jackomas said the return of Grida was a reminder to his players that things could be worse.
"It is a little bit of a reminder for our guys that it is not that bad. When we go to play a game, every game is a blessing because it was taken away from him for three years," he said.
"In the three years I've been his coach I've always had to ring his mother with bad news.
"So it is good she will come to a game in January and I will be able to meet her for the first time with a smile on our face and not worried about her son."
The man himself was just glad to finally be back on court to hopefully help the Hawks get some much-needed wins.
"I'm just super happy to be back here with the team. It's been awesome," Grida said.
"I felt super weird that first game but a lot more comfortable the second game. Hopefully I just keep building each game."
Grida said being unable to help his struggling team was one of the most difficult things about being on the sidelines.
"Knowing I can help has sucked. I was meant to be in it from the start of this year but it didn't go to plan," he said.
"I thought hopefully I could have got us off to a better start or helped us in some ways.
"But it's been a tough season for us as we've had a lot of roster turmoil this year with our imports coming and going, new guys coming in and out and me not being available.
"I've now come in and we've got the same roster for the year now so hopefully we can string some wins together."
The guard felt ready to play 40 minutes a game if needed but was happy to follow the cautious approach favoured by the club.
"I'm fully good to go, obviously they are going to restrict me a little bit and obviously I feel like I can play 40 minutes but that's not the plan right now," Grida said.
"I will just keep listening to these guys and however Jacob wants to play me I'm ready to go.'
Grida played just on five-minutes against both Sydney and Melbourne, and is expected to play a similar amount of minutes against Tasmania on Thursday.
He said while he wanted to contribute more he understood why he was on restricted minutes.
"It is frustrating but at the same time every second I'm on the court I'm super grateful for at this point in my career. I've loved every second," Grida said.
It is frustrating but at the same time every second I'm on the court I'm super grateful for at this point in my career. I've loved every second.
- Dan Grida
"It felt nice to make my first bucket against Melbourne. I honestly thought it was a charge and they were going to get the ball back, so it was nice seeing the ball go through the hoop and then I made the free throw.
"While it was nice to score for me just playing and being out there has been awesome.
"It is a pleasure also to play with these guys.
"We have such a good environment here at practice, even with the season we're having it is a pleasure coming in every day.
'They have been around me while I've been dealing with this. I couldn't be more thankful to them."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
