Tatum, 46, didn’t take a question after the Hawks won their first game of NBL26 against Brisbane 116-89<\/a>, instead directly addressed McLaughlin’s exit.<\/p>\n “(A report) was put out earlier: a false, misrepresentation of a young man who was in our program \u2014 JaQuori McLaughlin,” Tatum declared.<\/p>\n “The report was false, and that young man was nothing but a pleasure for our organisation and in our locker room, on and off the court. <\/p>\n “He was a true professional. He helped us every day while he was here. And the departure was mutual. At the end of the day, this is a business. <\/p>\n “But the false misrepresentation that was put out there earlier today was totally false, and we just want to make sure we clear that up for J Rock, \u2019cause he\u2019s an unbelievable kid.<\/p>\n “There was no ‘cancer’, nothing at all. We pretty much dislike that he\u2019s gone, I mean, just because of who he is, but at the end of the day this is a business and we get it.<\/p>\n “But I don\u2019t want anything to be put out there negatively about that kid \u2019cause he was nothing but a great person in our locker room. <\/p>\n “We\u2019re gonna miss him. We understand that, you know, things are gonna happen, but we don\u2019t want anybody to put out any bad misrepresentation of news out there.<\/p>\n “It wasn\u2019t that we weren\u2019t happy with his job. It\u2019s just that, at the end of the day, we\u2019re trying to find a way for pieces to fit, just like any other organisation in this league.<\/p>\n So, at the end of the day we have to find ways or put people in position to help us win. (I’m) not saying he wasn\u2019t able to do it or we wasn\u2019t doing it. <\/p>\n “It was just some things that we just need to be better at but that was it. That was it. <\/p>\n “Just basketball. So anything that was put out there negative about that kid is totally wrong.”<\/p>\n McLaughlin showed out during the NBL Blitz in Canberra but struggled to make an impact in the Hawks first three losses to start the season.<\/p>\n The 27-year-old American point guard became a central piece for the Hawks after NBL25 Grand Final hero William “Davo” Hickey<\/a> was ruled out for the start of the season. <\/p>\n It was always going to be tough coming into a line-up that boasted 2024-25 All-NBL First Team guard Trey Kell III, who signed with Japan B.League club Toyama Grouses<\/a> alongside former Boomer Brock Motum<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tatum said Hickey’s timetable for return is still unclear.<\/p>\n “I mean, once he gets cleared \u2014 I listen to my EMTs, and, you know, once they say, ‘Hey, JT, you can play him this amount of minutes or get this production out of him’,” Tatum revealed.<\/p>\n “But knowing William, he\u2019s gonna want to get out there and play 30\u201340 minutes as soon as the doctor clears him. <\/p>\n “So we gotta, you know, dial him down a little bit. But just his energy at practice, his support on the bench at the games, man \u2014 he\u2019s just itching to get out.”<\/p>\n Tatum said the Hawks were determined to bring in an “import” that fits the culture.<\/p>\n “We want to make sure that whoever we bring in fits our culture \u2014 on and off the court,” he said.<\/p>\n “And our culture is different from everyone else. Our locker room is extremely tight and somebody has to come in and understand that and accept the role that is given to them, and hopefully they can flourish in it. <\/p>\n “But yes \u2014 there\u2019s no rush to bring someone in, but they may or may not fit us because of their ability.”<\/p>\n JaQuori McLaughlin NBL26 Box Score<\/p>\n Points: 7.7 \u2502 FG: 21% \u2502 3PT FG: 14% \u2502 FT: 90% \u2502 Rebounds: 2.7 \u2502 Assists: 4.0 \u2502 Steals: 0.0 \u2502 Blocks: 0.0 \u2502 Efficiency: 75.0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illawarra Hawks coach Justin Tatum defends JaQuori McLaughlin after report claimed locker room issue Justin Tatum slams report…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-207305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/68ead5284f45cf76794d4d47_GettyImages-2238775519.jpg\")
Illawarra Hawks head coach Justin Tatum. Photo: Photo: James Worsfold\/Getty Images<\/p>\n