Cooks Logs Minutes in NBA Debut

Monday, March 20, 2023

On Wednesday night, Xavier Cooks was lifting the trophy aloft as captain of the Sydney Kings' back-to-back Championship team. Barely three and a half days later, early Sunday afternoon Australian time, he ran onto the court for the first time as an NBA player.

On Wednesday night, Xavier Cooks was lifting the trophy aloft as captain of the Sydney Kings' back-to-back Championship team.

Barely three and a half days later, early Sunday afternoon Australian time, he ran onto the court for the first time as an NBA player.

Being on the Washington Wizards' active roster against Sacramento was quite the achievement, but logging five and a half minutes of game-time was even more impressive.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLxNBA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLxNBA</a><br><br>NBL Championship and an NBA debut in the same week. Shout out to Xavier Cooks on being the latest NBL player to make the Jump to the NBA. <a href="https://t.co/MdWWDuGNjz">pic.twitter.com/MdWWDuGNjz</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1637285555594739712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Cooks pulled down a pair of rebounds in the Wizards' loss against the Kings, and even spent time on the court opposite fellow Australian star Matthew Dellavedova.

The pair embraced ahead of the clash at Washington's Capital One Arena.

On Saturday, Cooks signed what is believed to be a four-year deal with the Wizards, as reported by ESPN's Olgun Uluc, coming off a season with the Kings in which he won the NBL's MVP Award and was named in the All-NBL First Team.

Earlier in the day, New Zealand Breakers star Jarrell Brantley was signed to a 10-day contract by the Utah Jazz.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Welcome to the <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/xaviercooks10?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@xaviercooks10</a> ??? <a href="https://twitter.com/matthewdelly?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@matthewdelly</a> <a href="https://t.co/wlyX519rgs">pic.twitter.com/wlyX519rgs</a></p>— NBA Australia (@NBA_AU) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA_AU/status/1637277694017830918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>