Xavier Cooks not only feared for the back-to-back title hopes of the Kings, but also for his NBA opportunities. Badly spraining an ankle in Game 2 of the NBL23 semifinal series against the Cairns Taipans, Cooks was unsure of how dire the ramifications would be until a phone call with his agent quelled some of those concerns.
"From the start of the season I told my agent I didn't want to hear anything until I had to hear about," Cooks recalled to ESPN. "In the Cairns series when I rolled my ankle, I was pretty down, I told him I'd screwed it. He said he had some positive news."
That positive news was a multi-year contract with the Washington Wizards, his first and long-awaited NBA deal.
Already banged up, Cooks returned to the court, only to suffer multiple lower body knocks and significant knee swelling in the early portion of the Grand Final series against New Zealand. With a lifelong dream of suiting up in the NBA just days away, Cooks denies there was any internal wavering of his commitment to the Kings title pursuit.
"I was always going to give it a crack. Not just for myself, but it's pretty selfish of me to get this far and then leave my boys high and dry," Cooks said.
"Maybe I achieved my dreams of making the NBA, but our dream was to win an NBL championship. Who am I to worry about my dreams and not help them achieve theirs?"
In the end, Cooks secured both, with a 19-point, 11-rebound performance in the clinching Game 5 putting an exclamation mark on a dominant two-year period with the Kings that netted two rings along with a regular season MVP and Grand Final MVP.
72 hours later after a few celebratory beers, a couple hours sleep and a long-haul flight to the US, Cooks - still heavily jetlagged - had his name called in the final minutes of the Wizards home match up against the Sacramento Kings.
"Two minutes before I came in, I was yawning on the bench, tired, I was so jetlagged," he recalls with a laugh. "Coach was like, 'Xavier, you're in'.
"I never get called Xavier, so I was wondering who he was talking to. I went in there, it was awesome, it was still basketball, but it was a little bit of a culture shock being on the court with (Domantas) Sabonis and those guys. It was also great to go against (Matthew) Dellavedova in my first game. Delly is one of the nicest guys I've ever met so it was awesome to go against him.
"The game was at around 5am Sydney time, so I was just exhausted, it was a crazy turn of events. Then as soon as the game finished, we got on a plane to the next game, it's a crazy schedule over there."
All up, Cooks appeared in ten games, tallying 126 minutes of court time. While his first few appearances came in the final minutes of contests, his first major rotation time came against 2-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.
"I take pride in my defence and going into this game I had a couple of possessions where I played great defence and I still gave up an and one," Cooks says of defending Antetokounmpo.
"After the game, the coaches told me I did a great job. I said he had a 30-point triple-double and they said last time they played he had 55!
"The first couple of games, especially that Bucks game, I was a little bit starstruck by Giannis. I come on the court, he's strong, he's massive and the first quarter you think you have no chance. As the minutes come along, I got more comfortable, but it will take some time."
In his final appearance of the regular season, Cooks pieced together his first NBA double-double, registering 10 points and 14 rebounds in 38 minutes of court time. While joining the Wizards for the back end of the season was a challenge, Cooks relished the opportunity to dip his toes in an NBA system before getting to work in the offseason.
"Off the court I fit in well, everyone was really welcoming, everyone made a big effort to go out for dinner or play golf which was awesome. On the court, I was just trying to get up to speed, learn the terminology, learn all the plays. I get this first month to get used to the situation and then next year I can really attack it and try play Xavier Cooks basketball."
Now back in Australia, Cooks intends on returning to the US in late June to workout with Washington teammates and coaches ahead of Las Vegas Summer League, though he does not anticipate that he will play in the showcase event.
The Boomers World Cup campaign is also on the agenda, with the 27-year-old hoping to be a part of a loaded Australian squad for the tournament beginning in late August. Back in 2019, Cooks was a part of the squad, before an untimely knee injury in training camp ruled him out of the tournament.
"At the time, when I first made that Australian team, that was the highest moment of my basketball career," Cooks recalled.
"To be on the team with Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Dellavedova, those kinds of guys. People were surprised that I made the camp let along get on the team. I remember when (head coach) Andrej Lemanis first told me, I went back to my room and I've never felt that much joy before, I was so happy with myself.
"I was so close to representing the country and playing at the highest level and I fell short. The bad part is that I've never been back, I was the reserve for the Olympic team and hopefully I make the squad for this year's World Cup. That's the tough thing about sports, I haven't been back, I hope I get the chance, but you never know."
Catch the full conversation with Xavier Cooks on the Ball and the Real World Podcast - Available wherever you get your podcasts.
