Basketball: A major signing for the Hawke’s Bay Hawks

As the fans have seen Jordan Ngatai - a Saint who now becomes a Hawk. Photo / Photosport

The Hawke’s Bay Hawks’ 2023 men’s National Basketball League (NBL) hopes have been given a major boost with the signing of Tall Blacks and Wellington Saints player Jordan Ngatai.

The signing of the “Prince of Porirua”, who will be 30 next month and who has had six seasons with the Wellington Saints, was confirmed today by new Hawks general manager and player Jarrod Kenny, who was himself a major steal when signed in 2008, after five seasons with home team the North Shore-based Harbour Heat, including one as Young Player of the Year.

The Porirua-born Ngatai, a 1.96-metre “small forward” and left-handed shooter, first came to national attention as a pupil at Mana College, in Porirua, and after two years in California and Hawaii made his NBL debut with the Saints in 2012, making the Tall Blacks’ squad the following year and in 2014 figuring in the first of his four New Zealand NBL titles. He was also named as a development player for the New Zealand Breakers as they bounced back to regain the Australian NBL title.

He played for the Tall Blacks in the Fiba World Cup in China and is in line for this year’s World Cup, which is being played in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

He has had single-season stints with the Manawatū Jets, Taranaki Mountaineers and Otago Nuggets, and in 2018, with Kenny, won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games, then in 2020 signed a two-year Australian NBL deal with the Cairns Taipans, where teammates included Kenny and Hyrum Harris, who has been signed for a fourth season with the Hawks.

Both Ngatai, currently in Singapore, and new Hawks coach and veteran player Everard Bartlett, say it is the relationships built over the years that are key to such signings, indicating that all going well it could be where he plants his boots long-term.

“I’ve known Jarrod for a while now, being former teammates on the Tall Blacks and the Taipans and then in the NZNBL showdown [with the Otago Nuggets in 2021, when neither the Saints nor the Hawks played], and he’s always asked if I wanted to come to the Bay,” Ngatai said.

“I guess this year it finally worked out,” he said. “I think Hawke’s Bay is a great place and if things go well I could possibly see it as a long-term thing, not only for me but my family. One of Jarrod’s lines to get me to the Bay was it’s a great place to raise a baby.”

"This time it worked out": Jordan Ngatai on being lured to Hawke's Bay to play for the Hawks. Photo / Photosport

The basketball links are vast, with Ngatai also connected with other Hawks such as Ethan Rusbatch, Harris, Derone Raukawa and Jordan Hunt.

He recognises the Hawks franchise has won the NBL just once, in the league’s 25th year in 2006, and he’s keen to be part of doing it again.

Ngatai said: “When you sign with any team a championship is always the one goal you set, not only for yourself but for the team. To make it an even bigger year, the World Cup being in August just makes it even better and I feel like that will motivate me more to push myself to be better but also my teammates because they should also be striving for that World Cup spot.”

Bartlett, with a few more signings to come, says the Ngatai ink is “a very big signing” and “it was a bit of a shock to find he’s available”.

“I’ve been a part of his development so it’s exciting for him to be part of the Hawks.”

Ngatai expects to arrive in the Bay next month, in time to prepare for the first game a few weeks later.