Inside Cotton’s MVP mind

It’s no secret that Perth Wildcats superstar, Bryce Cotton, is yet again the frontrunner in the MVP race, but what’s it like to be inside the mind of Cotton when he takes to the floor? 

“I pride myself on effort over results,” Cotton said. 

The three-time MVP winner's mindset hasn’t changed since he first stepped foot on a basketball court, as he revealed the methods behind his game on the latest episode of the Under the Surface podcast.  

“You can control the effort you put in, you can’t always control what the results are going to be,” Cotton said.

In his seven years at the Wildcats, the 31-year-old has racked-up an abundance of awards, which has titled him as one of the greatest imports the NBL has ever seen.

He’s a three-time NBL champion, six-time scoring champion, and has been named on the All-NBL First team six times, to name a few.

Cotton delved into his ‘mind over matter’ technique, that has led the shooting guard to where he is today.

“To this day that is why I still work so hard. Because it gives me a piece of mind whatever the results are, if it turned out great, perfect, I worked hard and reap in the benefits. But, if it goes pear-shaped, I gave it everything I had,” he said.

With six rounds to go in the regular season, he’s become the frontrunner for MVP for the fourth time.

The former NBA player further explained the detachment he applies from the outcome of games, to focus on the present moment.

“If you don’t bust your *** to be all you can be and it doesn’t go well, you can’t say that’s what was in the cards because you didn’t actually apply yourself,” Cotton said.

“So I work hard for piece of mind, detached from what the outcome is going to be, knowing I want a good outcome but it’s like look, ‘it’s going to be what it’s going to be’.

“It doesn’t matter how good your skills are, if your mind is not right it’s never going to translate on the floor.”

He leads the NBL in points per game, averaging 23.2 points.

The Wildcats’ work-horse has claimed basketball had “saved” his life, dedicating every day to the game and leading to his long list of impressive awards.

“I don’t separate myself from basketball, because of what it means to me. I think it has saved my life, the direction of my life in more ways than one," Cotton said. 

“It’s hard for me to just take it as a game, because of that it’s like, ‘what I do at this game defines me’, because it gave me purpose in my life.”

Cotton and the Wildcats play the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday night at 8:00pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.