Cooks wins Andrew Gaze MVP Award

Numerous Sydney Kings were recognised for their amazing regular seasons at Tuesday's NBL23 awards night in Melbourne.

No acknowledgement was bigger than that for Kings forward Xavier Cooks, who took out The Andrew Gaze MVP Award - finishing on 120 votes, just ahead of Perth's Bryce Cotton (96) and South East Melbourne's Mitch Creek (80) in the voting.

Through his 26 games this season, which helped the Hoops Capital side claim the regular season championship, the 27-year-old Cooks, who also took out the NBL22 Finals MVP, averaged 16.23 points, 7.81 rebounds, 4.23 assists, 0.58 blocks and 0.54 steals per contest - to make him the fifth Sydney player behind Chris Williams (2002-03), Matt Nielsen (2003-04), Andrew Bogut (2018-19) and Jaylen Adams (2021-22) to win the MVP trophy.

Congratulations to our Andrew Gaze MVP for NBL23 ??#WeTheKings #TheGazeys pic.twitter.com/QuGotWIjHY

— Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) February 7, 2023

As well as taking home the most prestigious award on the night, Cooks was also named to his first-ever All-NBL First Team alongside Cotton, Creek, Tasmania's Milton Doyle and fellow King Derrick Walton Jr.

While the All-NBL Second Team featured Cairns pair Keanu Pinder (who also became the first-ever player to win the Most Improved Award in back-to-back seasons) and DJ Hogg, New Zealand duo Dererk Pardon and Barry Brown Jr (who also took out the Best Sixth Man prize) and Melbourne's Chris Goulding.

Sydney head coach Chase Buford was edged out for the Lindsay Gaze Coach of the Year prize by Taipans' Adam Forde.

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Other major award winners were Cairns' Mark Beecroft (Executive of the Year), Vaughan Mayberry (Referee of the Year), Adelaide's Antonius Cleveland (who became the eighth player to ever win the Damian Martin Trophy for Best Defensive Player in consecutive seasons), Cairns' Sam Waardenburg (Next Generation Award) and Adelaide's Kai Sotto (Fans' MVP).

Tickets to game one of the Kings' semi-final series on Wednesday, February 15 at Qudos Bank Arena are officially on sale here.