Glover Secures Moment in Sydney Sporting Folklore

Thursday, March 16, 2023

It’s the morning after the night before, and the reflection and dissection of the miraculous Game 5 of the NBL23 Championship Series has begun.

After trailling by double-digits for much of the first half, the Kings roared back late in the second quarter to get themselves to within one point at the main break, and then embarked on an 18-3 run in the final term to will themselves to victory.

Different players stood up in different moments. Derrick Walton Jr and Xavier Cooks dragged the team along with them in what is likely Cooks’ swansong with the side – at least for now.

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Jaylin Galloway came out with huge defensive plays and Kouat Noi hit some crucial shots, but special praise has been saved for Angus Glover.

Glover looked to be carrying a chest injury entering the second half and could hardly stand up straight on the bench – however he came back onto the floor and made a pair of huge offensive plays to turn the tide of the tie.

He ended the clash with 12 points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes from the bench.

“’Drewy’ (Andrew Gaze) picked it up at halftime during the warmups and said, ‘there’s something not right with Angus Glover’, and he didn’t come back on the floor until really late,” Liam Santamaria said on NBL Today. “then Rucker was giving the report that he was no good.

“When he came back in they were down, they looked almost out and he was hunched over and he couldn’t straighten up.

“Everyone knows the three knee reconstructions, one hamstring, two hamstring and then his dad’s hamstring in his knee. He was told by the surgeon at that time coming back from the third surgery ‘you’re better off retiring, it’s better you don’t play basketball anymore’.

“For him to come out, come back to the level he’s been, and then in this moment show that courage again in a big way to make those plays, the miss from the corner and then the follow-up dunk, then the triple, huge plays from a courageous young man.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Angus Glover's walking wounded but digging deep. What a jam ?<br><br>Catch the final moments of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLFinals?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLFinals</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies | Sky Sports and Prime in NZ. <a href="https://t.co/WaPhHPuA0r">pic.twitter.com/WaPhHPuA0r</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1635948937462034433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Alongside Glover’s heroics, many of the headlines to come out of the Championship Series will be the full stop put on this era of Xavier Cooks’ career.

The Washington Wizards-bound forward played four seasons with the Kings and leaves with two championships, a Larry Sengstock Medal, an All-NBL First Team selection and an All-NBL Second Team selection.

According to Liam Santamaria Cooks took the game’s defining moment into his own hands to turn momentum.

“Xavier Cooks had two defining plays, the offensive rebound putback – he just willed himself to that ball. Nobody else was getting that ball in that moment, and then down the other end the block on Dererk Pardon.

“They needed the three the Breakers, they went for the two, he was above the square when he blocked that.

“That offensive rebound was the defining moment for me because it was the guy – the MVP – who hadn’t had a great series, who told us just before he’d been outplayed by Jarrell Brantley,” Santamaria said.

“But in that moment just doing what it took to get over the line and win the title. That was the play I think I’ll remember down the track.”