From one great to another: Gaze salutes Cotton

As Bryce Cotton gets set to join Andrew Gaze as one of the handful of players in NBL history to have 40 points in four consecutive games, the Hall of Famer himself is enjoying the show from the Wildcat star.

“He’s straight box office, because of what he can do,” Gaze said on RSN. “(That's) evidenced quite clearly by the extreme we have seen the last three games.”

Gaze is widely regarded as the greatest player the NBL has ever seen and has his name etched into almost every statistical record, yet he believes Cotton’s latest scoring bonanza is just a cherry on top to the legacy he’s created.

“He really didn’t need those type of performances to cement his position as one of the greatest of all time,” he said.

“Because of what he’s done since he stepped foot on these shores.”

With a lot of the scoring records coming in the 48-minute era, Gaze says Cotton's incredible feats can't be underestimated.

“A lot of people go back to some big numbers, but they were played in an era where you played 48 minutes,” he added.

“But in the 40-minute game and the level of athleticism around these days, I personally think it’s a little harder to put up those kind of numbers.”

With Cotton looking to continue his record-breaking scoring stretch, the talk of his impending free agency continues to get louder as well.

The West Australian reported earlier in the week that the Perth Wildcats have offered Cotton a deal that would make him the highest paid player in NBL history, but Gaze believes that it’s not all about the dollars.

“The thing about Bryce is, throughout his career in the NBL he could have gone anywhere and got more money,” he said.

“If he’s purely playing for the money, he would have left a long time ago.”

The Wildcats travel to Cairns on Saturday night, as Cotton looks to continue his incredible run of form, live on ESPN from 8pm AEDT.