Sydney Kings signing Xavier Cooks says move is about helping him realise his NBA dream
Xavier Cooks has opened up on why he snubbed hometown team the Illawarra Hawks for the Sydney Kings.
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Proud Illawarra junior Xavier Cooks wants to set the record straight – his Sydney Kings signing had nothing to do with money.
The rising Boomers wing has been accused of chasing the dollars by snubbing his home-town Hawks and signing with the star-studded Kings.
The decision has left Illawarra officials bitterly disappointed and claiming that Sydney swooped with a significant financial offer.
Talk to Cooks, though, and his choice to link with the Kings was about giving himself the best pathway to the NBA.
“This is bigger than money,” Cooks told The Saturday Telegraph.
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“The culture at the Kings is unbelievable and this is the kind of place that is going to help me get to my next position in my career.
“Out of all the teams in the league I felt like Sydney was the best place for me to develop.
“That is the reason I came to the Kings – to get to the next level and make the NBA one day.
“I love the Hawks and I have nothing but respect for everyone there.
“When I came back from college at Winthrop they let me train with them, but it just came down to personal development and I felt like the Kings were the best stage to get to the higher level.”
Cooks worked closely with Sydney coach Will Weaver during his time in the Australian Boomers camp earlier this year.
He also built a close connection with Kings advisor and Boomers assistant Luc Longley, while he also learnt plenty from Andrew Bogut.
Cooks says these collective influences at Sydney were too good to knock back.
“All those people have a lot of experience and knowledge,” said the 24-year-old, who went undrafted in the 2018 NBA draft.
“When I was in the Boomers camp for the World Cup every player had an individual coach who you watched film with, and Weaver was my coach.
“The way we watch film is so similar, in terms of an emphasis on unselfish basketball and that is exactly the way I want to play.
“I just like talking hoops with Will — he has got a beautiful basketball brain.
“Under Will, the Kings preach creating that extra pass and that is another reason why I came to the club.”
Cooks’ decision to join Sydney over Illawarra was made more difficult given his dad’s connections with the Hawks.
Eric Cooks played for the franchise, captaining the club in 1999-2000, was head coach for a time, while he is currently an assistant coach.
The prospect of his son joining Illawarra’s arch-rivals was a bitter pill to swallow.
“Dad said I can’t come home for Christmas and I have to change my last name,” Cooks grinned.
“He is just joking. He is my dad and he is a damn good dad, so at the end of the day he is just happy for me to be happy.”
Illawarra coach Matt Flinn believes Cooks’ Sydney signing is another example of his franchise being prized out of the market by a cashed-up club.
He called on the league to review the salary cap and look at a draft system.
“It is always a dangerous precedent in a nine-team competition when you get teams that just can outbid people and stockpile talent the way that they (Sydney) do,” Flinn said.
Kings coach Will Weaver credited the Cooks signing to calculated salary cap management and creating a strong culture.
This includes a number of senior players taking pay cuts to give the franchise cap space in other areas.
“On a team level, we were over the cap last year, but we are under the cap this year and that comes from building enough flexibility within the group with the number of imports we had and the types of salaries we agreed to,” Weaver explained.
“That has given us the flexibility to bring in a third import if we needed to, which is how Deshon Taylor comes in as an injury replacement for Kevin Lisch without having to cut anybody.
“And to be in a position for a player like Xavier, where strange circumstances happen and he feels like this club is where he can best develop.
“People are going to say what they are going to say but we are in the unenviable position of having players want to come play here.
“Sometimes teams that aren’t in the same position have the unenviable position of having to ask themselves why they aren’t in that same position.”
Originally published as Sydney Kings signing Xavier Cooks says move is about helping him realise his NBA dream