Cooks Sets MVP Bar

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Sydney Kings’ MVP Finalist Xavier Cooks yet again proved his credentials for the league’s most coveted individual award after he recorded the first triple-double of the season.

Cooks’ triple-double of 16 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in Sunday’s game against the South East Melbourne Phoenix was the first in the NBL since now NBA star for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Josh Giddey, recorded one in 2021.

In front of Sydney's home crowd of 13,273 at Qudos Bank Arena, it was the perfect platform for Cooks to show out and display why he should be favoured over fellow MVP Finalists Bryce Cotton and Mitch Creek.

“It’s a really cool achievement (MVP), something that I’ve been trying to get for a little while now and I’ve been knocking on the door for so long,” Cooks said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Announcing the finalists for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> awards ?<br><br>Join us next Tuesday February 7th at the Andrew Gaze MVP Awards Night live at 8:30pm AEDT on ESPN via Kayo Sports & Foxtel<br><br>Read more here: <a href="https://t.co/qADf1cjlGL">https://t.co/qADf1cjlGL</a><br><br>MVP Finalists ?? <a href="https://t.co/BYzh3gBNKX">pic.twitter.com/BYzh3gBNKX</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1619808072406544384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The aspiring NBA player spoke on the role he has played for the Kings and his comfortability to step-up, get them to where they need to be, and prepare for the Finals after locking in a top-two spot.

“My job is to keep everyone’s mojo up,” Cooks said.

“The defensive schemes that I’m facing now, I’m getting a bit more attention.

“It’s a different team this year, it’s a different bunch of guys and we’re focused on trying to go back-to-back and we don’t feel the pressure.”

Coach Chase Buford supported Cooks’ comments and was content with the where the Kings are sitting to eye a championship title for the second season in a row.

“This team has proven all year that when we get stops we can score, even sometimes when we don’t get stops we can score,” Buford said.

“When we do play well defensively we’re usually pretty dominant.”

The Kings play the Adelaide 36ers on Friday night at 7:30pm AEDT.