"Real love" between Cooks and NBL rivals

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Washington's Xavier Cooks and Wes Unseld Jr have detailed the challenge of the Cairns Taipans.

Xavier Cooks may have put the Taipans to the sword in the NBL23 semi-finals, but the former Sydney Kings has “real love” for the Cairns organisation, as he prepares to face off in the NBLxNBA clash.

Cooks' Kings overcame the Taipans in their best of three schedule for a place in the Championship Series, where Sydney claimed its second straight NBL title – this time over New Zealand.

Just like last year's finals campaign, the NBL MVP is expecting another stern test from the Taipans on Wednesday.

“I’ve been battling these boys for years now,” Cooks said. “I played this team in the semi-finals last year, so I’ve got some real love for these boys.

“I’ve got nothing but love for the Australian fans. The fanbase back home is unbelievable and we really feel the love over here.

“I can’t wait to play some Aussie guys.”

The Taipans have travelled to Washington with a 2-1 record in the current NBL season.

They opened their campaign with a loss to New Zealand, before registering back-to-back wins against South East Melbourne and Brisbane.

Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr is expecting a tough challenge from the Taipans.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We discuss <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Aussie?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Aussie</a> love for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBA</a> ?? | Australia is ? in. <br>-<br>Coach talks about his experience with the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL</a> and how strong the league is. <br>-<br>Coach WUJ has had the pleasure of working with Xavier Cooks and other former <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL</a> players ?? <a href="https://t.co/jsX0xNiNnE">pic.twitter.com/jsX0xNiNnE</a></p>— Wayne Cole (@waynec0le) <a href="https://twitter.com/waynec0le/status/1711439752937836857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“They’ve played some games and they’ve been together for a little bit, and teams in the NBL are from a very physical league,” he said.

“Just watching Cairns, they do a great job of playing with pace, they’re very physical and they run a lot of NBA actions which is great, so we’ll get a test there.

“The pace at which they play is going to test us a little bit, moving from one action to the next. Defensively they’re going to change things up. They do a great job of switching from quarter to quarter, game to game how they guard. Do we have the ability to process and read those situations?

“It’s exciting. The NBL is a terrific league and I’ve had the opportunity to coach a handful of guys from that league.

“Tahj McCall who was with us in the summer was a great piece, two summers ago I had Torrey Craig out in Denver, and now Xavier Cooks.

“It’s a high-level league, very competitive, very physical, and the style they play there mimics the NBA pretty much as close as you can get.”

Cairns’ NBLxNBA campaign tips off on Wednesday morning at 10am AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.