NBL25 season review - Bryce Cotton

The superstar import became a five-time NBL MVP, a seven-time Gordon Ellis medallist, eight-time NBL Scoring Champion and made the All-NBL First Team for the eighth time after a career-best NBL25 campaign.

Cotton bounced back for an early-season rib injury, which sidelined him for more than a month, to produce a scoring run for the ages.

He amassed four games in a row of 40-plus points which included a 59-point haul against New Zealand Breakers at RAC Arena on December 1.

The 59-point game broke James Crawford’s long-standing points record of 57, set back in 1987.

It was also the highest individual score of the modern 40-minutes NBL era.

He also hit 49 points twice against Adelaide 36ers in a pair of memorable battles with fellow star Kendric Davis.

Cotton averaged a career-high 28.6 points per game, including six games of 40 points or more, to win back-to-back Andrew Gaze trophies and a record-breaking seventh Gordon Ellis Medal at the Wildcats’ MVP.

“The biggest thing for me this season was the rib injury,” Cotton said after overtaking Ricky Grace and Shawn Redhage’s six Gordon Ellis Medals.

“I wouldn’t have said it at the time but I think that was the biggest blessing in disguise because me being out that month allowed me to realise how much I still appreciate the game.

“My gratitude once I was able to come back on the floor of just being happy that I could be healthy and I could be out there playing, it was like a weight was off my shoulders and I played a lot freer, I felt mentally. That was the biggest significance for me this season.

“It’s just getting out of your own way sometimes. What other people expect of me doesn’t really bother me, but I put a lot of expectations on myself.

“The rib injury sidelining me allowed me to realise why I started playing the game as a kid. If I played the game with joy as a kid, I am doing myself an injustice if I’m playing the game at this point of my life and giving myself too much pressure and too much expectation.”

 

 

 

 

 

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The praise came thick and fast for Cotton amid his stunning season - and rightly so.

Wildcats legend Ricky Grace said he'd become the best Wildcat of all-time.

“If you look at credentials, Bryce is the best of all-time,” Grace told Perth Wildcast in December.

“I’ve never won the NBL MVP and he’s won four as he has many of those and the things that he’s done in the amount of time he’s been here is second to none.

“I’m just happy to be in the conversation (for the greatest Wildcat of all-time) but there’s nobody in Perth Wildcats history who’s achieved as much as Bryce has.”

Adelaide coach Mike Wells compared Cotton to Michael Jordan and Wildcats coach John Rillie described his 59-point game as the best individual performance he’s ever seen.