Kings' Game-Winner Credits Cairns for Career Spark

There’s plenty of knowledge of the opposition that comes from outside the scout in Friday’s matchup between Sydney and Cairns.

On one side there’s Adam Forde – the former Kings assistant and head coach who has led the Taipans on an unforeseen journey in NBL23. On the other is Kouat Noi – a former Taipan who finished runner-up in the 2020 NBL Rookie of the Year.

Despite his runners-up finish for Rookie of the Year in his debut professional campaign Noi’s time in Cairns was blighted by injury. He played 22 games in NBL20, 18 in NBL21 and just 16 in NBL22.

This season he’s missed just one game for the Kings – having played 28 of a possible 29 games so far.

He credits his time with the Taipans with helping him get to this point in his career.

Noi played his first three seasons as a professional with the Cairns Taipans.

“My first three seasons with Cairns I was just maturing,” Noi told SEN. “Obviously I went through a couple of injuries but I’ve seen the positives from that – it’s made me stronger, made me work on my body and it’s made me see the stuff I need to focus on.

“I’ve brought all that into the Sydney Kings. We have a great strength and conditioning staff here and they’ve helped me build my body back up again. I’m even stronger than I ever was.

“This organisation is just full of heart and all the staff members are really professional. I just love this organisation.”

Noi’s storyline against the Taipans this season couldn’t have been written better if he tried.

After hitting the game-winning shot against Cairns on his birthday, Noi is now playing as a more than capable backup to newly-minted MVP Xavier Cooks in the competition’s final four.

While he’s scoring the fewest points per game of any season of his NBL career so far Noi’s efficiencies have gone through the roof this season. With averages of 47.6 per cent from the field, 36.9 per cent from three and 79.6 per cent from the free throw line – a future 50/40/90 season isn’t fully out of the equation.

He says he couldn’t believe he hit that game-winning shot over his former side in Round 5.

“I was speechless for probably a week,” he said. “I couldn’t have written a better story than against my old team on my birthday to hit the game-winner.

“That was my first ever game-winner too, so I was just enjoying the moment.

“Their (Cairns) backs are against the wall and one more loss will end their season. We’re on this business trip and we’re very confident. We’ve got a specific game-plan we’re going to bring out and I believe we’re going to get the job done.

“If we can close out the game that would just add better stuff to the story.”

Sydney take on Cairns on Friday at 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.