Players
Xavier Cooks
Xavier Cooks
2024 Averages
16.9
PPG
3.9
APG
8.8
RPG
60
FG%
Biography
Departed the Sydney Kings as a two-time championship winning captain and NBL MVP at the end of NBL23 and now returns after earning a taste of playing in the NBA and Japan.
Returns to the Kings a highly decorated player with the 29-year-old having won two championships at the Kings which saw him named Grand Final MVP in 2022, league MVP in 2023 and comes back a man on a mission.
While born in Ballarat, Victoria, mostly grew up in Wollongong where his father played and would go on to be a coach at the Illawarra Hawks before joining the Centre of Excellence in 2014 after finishing at school.
After that, attended Winthrop University in South Carolina and those four years included making Big South All-Freshman Team in 2015, First Team All-Big South in both 2017 and 2018, and being Big South Player of the Year in 2018.
Started his professional career in Germany with s.Oliver Würzburg where he played 54 games across 2018/19 before coming to play in the NBL for the first time and joining the Kings for NBL20.
His growth season on season with the Kings was remarkable where he went from 6.7 points and 9.0 rebounds in 24 minutes in NBL20 to 10.3 points, 5.0 boards and 2.5 assists in 21 minutes for NBL21, and then 15.5 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 28.7 minutes.
That saw him be a key member of the NBL22 championship team and backed it up with a dominant NZ NBL season at the Wellington Saints where he was named MVP.
Was then MVP of the NBL in 2022/23 with 15.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists a game on the way to again being championship captain which led to him signing for the Washington Wizards.
Played 10 games to close the 2022/23 NBA season before then signing in Japan to play at the Chiba Jets ahead of now returning to the Kings for NBL25.