The Road Diary: Hyrum Harris

There's more than the defensive grind of our New Zealand international Hyrum Harris.

Behind the scenes, he's an avid golfer as well as a big fan of card games.

'H' has been at the 36ers for two seasons now, and he said the risk the club took to bring him over during the peak of the Covid pandemic is one he is grateful for.

"During that time it was peak Covid, they were reliant on luck to see if I could even get into the country," he said.

"There was that risk, I'm thankful they took that risk, it worked out for me.

"I did alright last season and got asked to come back, I had to take the opportunity.

"I was stoked they even wanted me back."

Away from the basketball court, Harris enjoys his time at the golf course, and fellow 36er Sunday Dech isn't too far behind.

"I'd had a few games of golf here and there, never anything serious," he said.

"My team in New Zealand had a golf day and I got teamed up with a New Zealand pro...he was giving me a few pointers as we were playing, and I thought this was really cool.

"I had one good hit all day, but that one good hit was like an addiction, you just can't get rid of it.

"My uncle luckily had a set up of clubs I'd use, they were way too small but they were free to use.

"I started to have two or three good hits out of 50, and then I thought I'm really going to give this thing a crack.

"I went to the golf pro's course, and he gave us proper lessons, recorded our swing, got a few pointers, and I thought I love this too much to not do it...he was kind enough to give me my own clubs for a good deal, fitted them for me.

"Sunday and I went out when I came to Adelaide.

"Sometimes we're on the road for three days out of seven days, if we get an off day or only have a morning practice, you can almost guarantee Sunday and I are teeing up."

The golf course is the one place you're likely to see Harris without his friend and roommate, Kyrin Galloway.

The two have had a tight bond off the court as seen in the Hyrum v Kyrin challenges on social media.

"What you guys don't actually know is I hate that guy," he laughed.

"After practice a few times at the Breakers he was there, and it sort of came out of nowhere, I needed a place to live because where I was looking was expensive.

"I messaged him saying 'bro, do you have a place to live' and he said he was looking for himself and wouldn't be mad if we flatted together.

"We found a nice spot, and when you see someone every day, you're going to have to make a good relationship out of it.

"We kind of have to be joined at the hip, we go everywhere together."

The two are usually roommates on the road, but other times he's with either Kai Sotto or Deng Acuoth.

"We room on the road most of the time, sometimes I'm with Kai or DA, but majority of the time I'm with him," he said.

"At the moment, there's a bunch of us; me, KG, Sunday and Ian (Clark) playing this game called pocket chess.

"We're doing our own thing in our room, there's not much else to do in the room."

Another game Harris is heavily involved with is the group's pre-flight ritual, which is a game of 'Dutch' at the airport.

"Everyone's starting to get involved in that game now, it's a good game," he said.

"I picked it off one of the Breakers boys, Tommy V (Vodanovich).

"I introduced it to Sunday and Kai, and it's spread everywhere.

"It started with me, Kai and Sunday, then people would be watching and ask if they want to play and they'd ask how and boom, boom, boom, they're playing.

"Kai played with his family, Sunday played with his family, so did Nick over Christmas."

However, Harris was quick to say who he thinks it's the best at the game.

"Sunday's always going to claim he's the best at it, but you can never be better than the person who introduced the game," he said.

The 36ers snapped a five-game losing streak against Cairns, and Harris said it was needed.

"Winning helps, it solves a lot of problems and we did owe Cairns one," he said.

"It was good to go there and get one, they were down a few numbers, but we did a good job to get the win.

"They put up a hell of a fight, they played hard, we were just the better team on the day and that's how basketball works."