{"id":500198,"date":"2026-02-24T04:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500198\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T04:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:14:09","slug":"mvp-award-kendric-davis-instagram-live-rant-after-bryce-cotton-wins-who-won-the-andrew-gaze-trophy-latest-news-reaction-winners-video-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500198\/","title":{"rendered":"MVP award, Kendric Davis Instagram Live rant after Bryce Cotton wins, who won the Andrew Gaze Trophy?, latest news, reaction, winners, video, highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sydney Kings star Kendric Davis has taken to social media in a stunning rant after he was pipped of the NBL\u2019s MVP award by just two votes.<\/p>\n<p>Adelaide 36ers\u2019 blockbuster recruit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/basketball\/nbl\/nbl-2026-andrew-gaze-mvp-awards-live-updates-and-results-nbl-award-winners-mvp-race-bryce-cotton-and-kendric-davis-latest-basketball-news\/news-story\/f10729b0d118e56fc9606186a964b158\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Bryce Cotton claimed the Andrew Gaze Award<\/a> for the third straight season, and for the sixth time in his career, as Davis received runner-up honours in back-to-back seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Watch live coverage of NBL and WNBL 2025-26 seasons with ESPN on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au?pg=default&amp;extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkbasketball-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-basketball-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra&amp;voucher=\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cotton received 96 votes to Davis\u2019 94, meaning if just one person changed their vote, it would have been a tie.<\/p>\n<p>The pair of point guards led their respective teams to the top two spots on the NBL ladder, and there was very little between their individual statistics.<\/p>\n<p>Cotton averaged 25.7 points per game compared to Davis\u2019 24.4, but the latter was more efficient, shooting at 48 per cent from the field compared to 44.<\/p>\n<p>Cotton takes out 6th NBL MVP | 01:11<\/p>\n<p>Davis also led the rebounds 3.9 to 3.6, but Cotton led assists (7.6 to 6.7) and steals (1.8 to 1.1).<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, the Kings\u2019 American import felt as if he was robbed.<\/p>\n<p>In an Instagram Live video, the 26-year-old took aim at long-time NBL commentator John Casey and wanted to know who each member of the voting panel awarded their vote to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey got John Casey. I love John Casey but John Casey on this, like c\u2019mon bro,\u201d Davis said.<br \/>\u201cLet\u2019s see who voted for who. So we know what is going on like the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll I know is you put my stats up against his stats and take our faces off, and tell the NBA to vote on who should win MVP, I guarantee I come out on top.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGuarantee but not a go.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t really even care. I\u2019m just speaking on it because if it ain\u2019t spoke on, they gonna sweep it under the rug. So, you gotta speak on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t tell me about \u2018rook\u2019 no more. \u2018Rook\u2019 is fake. Man, two straight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey didn\u2019t want me to win it from the get go. They didn\u2019t want me to win MVP from the get go. Trust me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy do you think at the beginning of the year all they did was post, the NBL post said I\u2019m a bad teammate and all this and that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NZ Breakers win inaugural Iginte Cup | 01:49<\/p>\n<p>Get all the latest basketball news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/newsletter-sign-up?utm_source=BasketballArticle&amp;utm_medium=TextLink&amp;utm_campaign=signup\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Monday night at Melbourne\u2019s Crown Palladium, Davis also shared his outrage with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailytelegraph.com.au\/sport\/basketball\/sydney-kings-star-kendric-davis-fumes-after-being-snubbed-for-nbl-mvp\/news-story\/6a1588f31923eb13755999bbdf7f2654\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">The Daily Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe (Cotton) won a popularity contest,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey found every reason not to give it (the MVP) to me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all political.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am going to call out some of this sh*t.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want it to be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked about Kendric Davis\u2019s social media rant at this morning\u2019s NBL finals press conference, Cotton chose not to escalate the situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was too busy paying for everybody\u2019s drinks, so I didn\u2019t catch everything that was said. Sorry about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MVP Votes are cast by each club\u2019s head coach and the captain (or one of the captains if the team has co-captains).<\/p>\n<p>The coach\u2019s vote is viewed as representative of the coaching group, while the captain\u2019s vote is viewed as representative of the playing group.<\/p>\n<p>The NBL\u2019s rules state that you cannot vote for a player from your own club.<\/p>\n<p>Kristian Doolittle of the Perth Wildcats and South East Melbourne Phoenix\u2019s Nathan Sobey shared third place in the voting as they tied on 59 votes.<\/p>\n<p>Davis and the Sydney Kings will be back in action next month when they take on the winner of the play-in games in best of three series for a spot in the grand final.<\/p>\n<p>The Kings will take on one of the Phoenix, Wildcats, Melbourne United or the Tasmania JackJumpers.<\/p>\n<p>Cotton and the 36ers will face either the Phoenix or the Wildcats in the other best of three series for a grand final berth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney Kings star Kendric Davis has taken to social media in a stunning rant after he was pipped&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[125404,64,63,21969,251594,17343,11288,98414,251595,251597,251591,251596,251593,52508,1314,85,251598,251592],"class_list":["post-500198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-american-import","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball-news","tag-cmon-bro","tag-daily-telegraph","tag-grand-final","tag-grand-final-berth","tag-john-casey","tag-kendric-davis-instagram-live","tag-led-assists","tag-play-in-games","tag-point-guards","tag-popularity-contest","tag-social-media","tag-sports","tag-stunning-rant","tag-win-inaugural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}