Hawkins: 'I didn't play my cards right'
May 4—CHAMPAIGN — Coleman Hawkins' decision to enter the transfer portal after declaring for the 2024 NBA draft was all about having available options. All of them.
Stay in the draft.
Return to Illinois.
Or play a fifth season of college basketball elsewhere.
It was also a decision based on how he handled a similar situation a year prior. Hawkins declared for the draft after his junior year with the Illini but didn't enter the transfer portal. Three options became two and then just one after he withdrew from the draft. Any leverage he might have in the name, image and likeness era was gone.
"It's simply off of, honestly, what I can call a mistake I didn't do last year," Hawkins told Jeff Goodman during an appearance on a Field of 68 podcast. "I didn't play my cards right. Everyone knows me as a loyal guy, and that's kind of what went into that. Last year, I didn't want to put my name in the portal, although my father was telling me business is business.
"This wasn't a transfer portal to go and leave and get more money. This was a transfer portal to negotiate and still end up at Illinois. I didn't play those cards right."
Hawkins returned to Illinois for the 2023-24 season after withdrawing from the draft. Even dealing with a lingering knee injury the entire year — tendonitis hampered him from start to finish — he averaged a career-high 12.1 points and, most importantly, shot a career-best 37 percent from three-point range.
It's why Hawkins has NBA draft prospects. The 6-foot-10 forward said the feedback he's received so far indicates he will be selected with one of the 58 picks come next month's draft. The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor has the Illinois senior going 56th overall to the Memphis Grizzlies.
But while Hawkins focus remains on the draft, he holds more cards this time around. Two doors are open should he not receive the type of feedback he wants on his draft prospects. Or, in a worst-case scenario, suffer an injury that precludes NBA teams from completing their draft evaluation.
And only because he entered the transfer portal before this week's deadline.
"Don't get me wrong," Hawkins said. "I'm grateful for everything, but I'd say this is just preventing a mistake I didn't do last year, if anything, to kind of help me. Especially if it's going to be my last year somewhere. I want to try to maximize and make as much money as I can like anybody else in the world would do.
"It's nothing to do with, 'I'm done with Illinois. I hate the coaching staff.' I've been there for four years. We just got (assistant coach Orlando Antigua), which I love. He recruited me. It has nothing to do with people leaving or anything like that. It's simply based off trying to play my cards right and maximize the amount of money I can get in this next year because I didn't get an opportunity to do it my junior year."
Hawkins said his NBA draft feedback to date has mostly centered around a two-way contract for the 2024-25 season, although a guaranteed contract isn't an impossibility. Fifteen second-round picks from last year's draft signed at least partially guaranteed, multi-year contracts. Those deals start at the league minimum, which is projected at $1.16 million next season. A two-way contract would be worth half that at $580,000.
It would make sense that Hawkins would expect at least the latter should he withdraw from the NBA draft and return to college basketball. Wherever that would be to Illinois or another program.
"I haven't even had the chance to talk to Coach (Brad) Underwood a second time to talk about the transfer portal or anything," Hawkins said. "I'm not going to bother him while he's in Spain. They're building up their roster. I'm not going to say I'm guaranteed to get this and that. If I were to come back to school, I wouldn't want to take away from those guys coming in who aren't expecting me to come back. Who are there probably because I'm not coming back.
"I would talk everything out with them, but I wouldn't want to take away from those guys coming in who are going to be blinded like, 'Oh, Coleman's back.' That might change some things for them. I think that would be kind of selfish of me, but I would definitely talk to them and keep Illinois as an option because I'm a big loyalty guy."
Which means Hawkins probably won't end up at another Big Ten program — or Missouri — should he opt for a fifth season of college basketball but not return to Illinois.
"I'm a rivalry guy," he said. "Other Big Ten teams disgust me. I'm not going to lie. They might be disgusted by me, but I don't like them, either. I would never play in the Big Ten if I were to go somewhere else.
"I can't stand Mizzou. I can't stand all the other Big Ten schools. I respect them — don't get me wrong — but I would never play in the Big Ten. You guys wouldn't have to worry about me wearing an Indiana jersey or something like that."
