Rucker reveals KD message: 'Rings over trophies'

After missing out on the Hungry Jack’s NBL26 MVP award to Bryce Cotton, Sydney’s Kendric Davis quickly shifted his focus to winning this season’s championship.

Upset with missing out on the Andrew Gaze Trophy, Davis expressed his frustrations via social media, but also during the next day’s NBL Finals Launch, where he said he plans to “win something that they can’t vote on.”

Davis' Finals form has backed up that statement, performing strongly in all of Sydney’s five post-season matches, including Sunday’s historic 35-point, 14-assist, 0-turnover performance against Adelaide in Game 3.

One former star who knows the pain of missing out on the league’s top honour is Derek Rucker, who twice finished second in the voting to seven-time winner, Andrew Gaze.

“When you feel at the conclusion of a season that you’ve really got it right and that you’re the best in the League that season and it doesn’t go that way, it hurts,” Rucker told CODE Sports.

“You never forget. It’s just empty and there’s so much ballyhooed around the person who wins it.”

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It’s because of this mutual hurt that Rucker, who ended up winning the 1990 MVP but never won a championship, sympathised with Davis, encouraging him to use that pain as fuel.

“During that now infamous moment on the [Crown] Casino floor between myself and Kendric, I said to him, ‘Hey man, if I could give back my MVP for a championship, I’d do it in a f***ing heartbeat’,” Rucker said.

“He just kind of nodded his head and, while I can’t totally speak for him, I think he understood it and I believe now it resonates greater for him now that he’s right there on the brink of it.”

Game 4 of the Championship Series tips off at 7.30pm AEDT on Wednesday at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, live on ESPN and 10 Drama in Sydney and Adelaide.

‍Read the full story here >> Derek Rucker opens up on MVP pain following Kendric Davis’ explosive awards crash out