NBL Awards: Cotton the king of the NBL for a fifth time

The Perth Wildcats superstar made it back-to-back NBL MVP awards on Monday night after a career-best campaign.

Cotton averaged a career-high 28.6 points per game, including six games of 40 points or more and a Wildcats-record 59 points against New Zealand Breakers in December.

He became the first player since 1993 to have six 40-plus point hauls, when Andrew Gaze achieved that feat.

He’s also now just two NBL MVP awards away from equalling Gaze’s seven after edging out Adelaide star Kendrick Davis and SEM Phoenix big man Matt Hurt.

Cotton finished with 119 votes, with Davis in second on 82 and Hurt (65) rounding out the top three.

He also took out the Fans’ MVP, became an eight-time Scoring Champion and made the All-NBL First Team for the eighth time.

Young gun Ben Henshall finished runner up in the Next Generation Award on 40 votes, just six behind Sydney King Alex Toohey.

The 20-year-old was also a finalist in the Most Improved Player award, won by Brisbane’s Tyrell Harrison.

The Wildcats couldn’t make it to Melbourne for the awards due to Tuesday’s play-in clash against the Phoenix as Perth HPC so gathered at Crown Perth’s Astral Room for a small team celebration instead.