Xavier Cooks Wins MVP Honours

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Sydney Kings’ superstar Xavier Cooks has won the Andrew Gaze Trophy as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the 2022/23 Hungry Jack’s NBL Season.

Cooks polled 120 votes, beating Perth’s Bryce Cotton (96 votes) and South East Melbourne’s Mitch Creek (80 votes).

Cooks becomes the third King to win the award in the past five seasons, joining Jaylen Adams (2022) and Andrew Bogut (2019).

The 27-year-old averaged 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists, while creating game changing plays on the defensive end on a consistent basis.

Cooks will now lead Sydney in the Finals in its championship defence, and continues to receive strong NBA interest.

Cairns Taipans’ coach Adam Forde won the Lindsay Gaze Trophy for Coach of the Year after engineering a dramatic turnaround in Far North Queensland.

The Taipans finished ninth last year, winning just nine games, but doubled that win total this season to secure a spot in the Finals.

MVP finalists Cooks, Cotton and Creek were joined in the All-NBL First Team by Sydney’s Derrick Walton Jr and Tasmania’s Milton Doyle.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ALL-NBL FIRST TEAM ??<br><br>Congratulations to Creek, Cooks, Cotton, Walton Jr and Doyle on being selected to the All-NBL First Team for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> ?<br> <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheGazeys?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TheGazeys</a> live on ESPN + the NBL social channels <a href="https://t.co/PS6VTYt290">pic.twitter.com/PS6VTYt290</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1622896972305956864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

New Zealand and Cairns had a strong presence in the All-NBL Second Team with two Breakers in Dererk Pardon and Barry Brown Jr, and two Taipans in DJ Hogg and Keanu Pinder, joining Melbourne captain Chris Goulding.

In a night to remember for Cairns, Pinder was also named Most Improved Player, Sam Waardenburg won the Next Generation Award presented by Champion, and CEO Mark Beecroft was recognised as the Executive of the Year.

Antonius Cleveland’s name will be etched into the Damian Martin Trophy for the second year running, with the ferocious Adelaide defender becoming the eighth player in history to win back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards.

New Zealand scoring machine Barry Brown Jr was named the Best Sixth Man presented by Marsh while Filipino sensation Kai Sotto was voted the Fans’ MVP, presented by Chemist Warehouse, for the second year in a row.

Final votes for the awards were:

Andrew Gaze Trophy – Most Valuable Player – Presented by Hungry Jack’s
Xavier Cooks (Sydney) - 120 votes
Bryce Cotton (Perth) - 96 votes
Mitch Creek (South East Melbourne) - 80 votes

Most Improved Player
Keanu Pinder (Cairns) – 48 votes
Will McDowell-White (New Zealand) – 46 votes
Sean Macdonald (Tasmania) – 34 votes

Damian Martin Trophy for the Best Defensive Player
Antonius Cleveland (Adelaide) – 37 votes
Dererk Pardon (New Zealand) – 34 votes
Shea Ili (Melbourne) – 26 votes

Best Sixth Man – presented by Marsh
Barry Brown Jr (New Zealand) – 73 votes
Tyler Johnson (Brisbane) – 41 votes
Rashard Kelly (Tasmania) – 26 votes

Lindsay Gaze Trophy - Coach of the Year
Adam Forde (Cairns) – 64 votes
Mody Maor (New Zealand) – 52 votes
Chase Buford (Sydney) – 34 votes

Next Generation Award – presented by Champion
Sam Waardenburg (Cairns) – 47 votes
Sam Froling (Illawarra) – 45 votes
Luke Travers (Perth) – 24 votes

All-NBL First Team
Xavier Cooks (Sydney) – 54 votes
Mitch Creek (South East Melbourne) – 45 votes
Bryce Cotton (Perth) – 54 votes
Milton Doyle (Tasmania) – 42 votes
Derrick Walton Jr (Sydney) – 41 votes

All-NBL Second Team
Keanu Pinder (Cairns) – 33 votes
Dererk Pardon (New Zealand) – 22 votes
Barry Brown Jr (New Zealand) – 37 votes
DJ Hogg (Cairns) – 30 votes
Chris Goulding (Melbourne) – 23 votes

Executive of the Year
Mark Beecroft (Cairns)

Fans’ MVP – Presented by Chemist Warehouse
Kai Sotto (Adelaide)

Gametime by Kmart Award
Reuben Te Rangi (South East Melbourne)

Referee of the Year – Presented by Europcar
Vaughan Mayberry