Incoming Hawks coach Brian Goorjian has taken aim at clubs he says breached a guarantee to not recruit former Hawks players until July 15.
The NBL free agency period is a time when players not contracted to a club are allowed to be contacted and signed by teams.
The period was pushed back this year, partly to allow the Hawks more time to appoint coaching staff after new owners took over.
But Goorjian said Boomers representative and Hawks player Angus Glover was already lost to the Sydney Kings before free agency started, and that guard Sunday Dech was set to go elsewhere too.
"My understanding was there was an amnesty, that these kids would be left alone until free agency to give this new organisation at the Hawks a chance to do their thing," Goorjian said.
"That couldn't have been further from the truth."
Players 'all taken' ahead of free agency
Goorjian, who accepting the Hawks coaching role last month, said he had intended to re-sign the Hawks' core group of young players, including Sam Froling, Emmett Naar and Dan Grida.
"I was excited about [Glover and Dech] and when I got there they were all taken," Goorjian said.
"I've worked my tail off, along with my staff, to resurrect whatever we could."
Yesterday the Hawks announced the re-signing of Naar, with Grida and Froling to follow.
But the loss of Glover and possibly Dech has highlighted the perennial issue of clubs making premature contact with free agent players.
The NBL has confirmed that free agents cannot be contacted by clubs for recruiting until the free agency periods starts.
Goorjian said it was a crucial time for the Hawks after the club went into voluntary administration and the appointment of new owners.
"When I took the job, I knew the owners had met and said they'd keep this open until the new organisation came in," he said.
"It's like you've been punched in the guts and you have to pick yourself up."
NBL offered to honour contracts
As part of the voluntary administration proceedings, the administrator terminated the contracts of all Illawarra Hawks employees, including Naar, Dech and Glover, who would have been under contract this coming season.
The NBL offered to honour those contracts if the players agreed to the same terms, but none of them accepted the offer.
In a statement, the NBL said those contracts could have been transferred to the new owners if the administrators had come to them first and asked that the players be secured
