Basketball On The Internet.

BRYCE Cotton tonight moved within one Most Valuable Player win of forcing a name change onto the NBL's highest individual award to the "Andrew Gaze-Bryce Cotton MVP" after pipping Kendric Davis and claming his sixth crown, albeit his first as a "true blue" Aussie.

The award is named after Gaze, a seven-time MVP winner, but Cotton's form this season for the Adelaide 36ers suggests more individual honours in the future are far from beyond him.

At the Perth Wildcats, Cotton won MVPs in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025. With Adelaide 36ers this season as a naturalised Aussie, he led the NBL in scoring with 25.7ppg and assists, his 7.6 a career best. His 1.8 steals also is a career high. Additionally he secured 3.6 rebounds in 32 matches.

His 96 votes edged Sydney's Davis on 94, the NBL not fully revealing the voting structure, subsequently leaving the Kings guard exasperated.

Sydney mentor Brian Goorjian, who steered the Kings to the regular season championship after a struggling 3-5 start, won the Lindsay Gaze Trophy as Coach of the Year, his seventh such accolade.

South East Melbourne's Nathan Sobey and John Brown III joined Cotton, Davis and Perth forward Kristian Doolittle in the so-called All-NBL First Team. Three guards, a wing and a forward hardly constitutes a "team". Call it the All Star Five and fair enough. But "Team"? Forget it.

Same goes for the poorly named All-NBL Second Team, although I would back this "team" to beat the "First Team". It comprised Cairns’ Jack McVeigh, New Zealand’s Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Sydney’s Xavier Cooks, Tasmania’s Bryce Hamilton and Adelaide’s Zylan Cheatham.

Brown winning the Damian Martin Defensive Player of the Year, teammate Angus Glover claiming the Sixth Man of the Year and Adelaide's Flynn Cameron winning the Most Improved award were all certainties and well deserved winners.

NZ's Sam Mennenga took the Step One Next Generation award and also had the year's finest dunk.

Michael Aylen was Referee of the Year - it was Vaughan's turn last year wasn't it? - the award presented by Europcar for the 11th time. Melbourne’s Malith Machar's efforts in the community were honoured with the Gametime by Kmart award.