It was an image that became one of the defining moments of the NBL championship series.
Moments after Bryce Cotton’s dramatic game-winning layup levelled the series at 1-1, Sydney Kings star Kendric Davis confronted the six-time MVP on the court, creating a fiery scene that instantly captured the attention of fans around the league.
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For many, it was seen as the culmination of a season-long battle between two of the competition’s biggest stars.
For Davis, however, it was much simpler. He was furious.
Not at Cotton, but at the fact the Kings had let a golden opportunity slip away.
More than two months after leading Sydney to the 2025-26 NBL Championship and claiming Finals MVP honours, Davis has opened up on the incident for the first time on NBL Now, revealing the emotions that fuelled one of the most memorable moments of the season.
“I get in the locker room and I’m super mad because I know we should have won. We should have won that game and I’m super mad because we just gave them hope and I didn’t want to go back there,” Davis said.
“We just gave them hope that they can beat us and we controlled that whole game. I played horrible and I felt like I lost that game. I went to the team personally and told them, ‘I lost you all this game, but I’m going to win you the next one.’”
After suffering a humiliating 112-68 defeat in Game One, Adelaide responded brilliantly in Game Two with Cotton’s late heroics changing everything.
The dramatic finish left Davis stewing.
“I was mad. I’m like, ‘damn, we were 20 seconds away from sweeping their ass.’ And that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to pull the brooms out. So I was still mad that we didn’t sweep them.”
The confrontation that followed wasn’t premeditated. Instead, Davis admits it became a way to reignite the competitive fire he felt was needed heading into the decisive third game.
Davis GOES AFTER Cotton in wild finish | 01:11
“I always try to get myself going. How can I stay motivated? How can I keep that fire in me outside my family knowing I was struggling? Like, how can I keep that fire in me?”
“So when I seen him come by our bench and celebrate like the series was over, I just wanted to let him know it was one-one.”
“It was fun to me and it got me going, it got me fiery. Like I was ready because I’m like in my head we just beat him by sixty and then the next game, you know, he’s in front of the commentators and that just got me going.”
“Was it right or wrong? No, it’s just basketball. There wasn’t punches thrown. We were just, you know, entertaining.”
“But it was real. I just wanted to let him know, like, ‘I’m going to be coming at your neck Sunday. So be humble, get in line and get ready.’ So I mean, it was fun and if I could redo it again, I would do it again.”
A CHAMPIONSHIP WORTH REFLECTING ON
Seventy-three days after the Kings secured the championship, Davis said the achievement still resonates.
After all, it was the culmination of months of work, adversity and scrutiny.
“Oh, of course you reflect on it. Like you spend seven, eight months to try to get that done and the way the city turned out for us, we wanted to win it for them most importantly,” he said.
“18,000 fans came out, I mean, that’s something never been done before. And for the league, for the city in general, that’s huge.”
“It was on a Sunday, anybody could have been doing anything on a Sunday, they chose to come support Sydney.”
“Adelaide fans came out. I mean, it was just great. It was a great atmosphere.”
The impact stretched far beyond Australia.
“Man, I come home and everybody talked about it, you know.”
“Here in Houston and everybody was like, ‘Man, we had watch parties. I felt like it was the NBA Finals.’”
“A couple of my friends in Dallas watched the game. So it brought the world together.”
FROM A ROUGH START TO CHAMPIONS
The championship run was far from straightforward.
Sydney opened the season with a loss to Cairns and sat at 3-5 through seven rounds following a disappointing defeat to Tasmania at Qudos Bank Arena.
Questions quickly emerged about whether Brian Goorjian’s roster construction would work, particularly regarding Davis’ ability to coexist alongside Australian basketball legend Matthew Dellavedova.
At the time, Davis admits he was still trying to find his place within the team.
“It was a mixture of a lot. Getting to know each other, I got in and got hurt in the pre-season against Tasmania. And I didn’t practice the whole pre-season.”
“Jaylen [Galloway] and X [Xavier Cooks] were at the FIBA window, so they didn’t practice, so it was like a mixture of everything.”
“We didn’t know what worked. We didn’t know what line-ups, what style of play. It took a while for us to kind of understand each other and then just getting comfortable with one another.”
The turning point came through veteran leadership.
“I know for me, I wasn’t comfortable yet but that’s where Deli comes in. That’s where X come in at.”
“Because without Deli and X, I don’t think it turns around the way it did because we had positivity. We had great leaders.”
By season’s end, Sydney had transformed into the league’s dominant force, finishing first with a 24-9 record and leading the NBL in both offensive and defensive rating.
PROVING DOUBTERS WRONG
Much of the criticism surrounding Davis stemmed from his previous season in Adelaide, where he often operated as the primary ball-handler.
Some questioned whether he could succeed alongside another playmaker such as Dellavedova.
Davis never understood the criticism.
“Everybody saw me in Adelaide where I was so ball dominant to the point where they were like, ‘I don’t know if he can play without the ball’, but that’s one year y’all watched me.”
Davis wasn’t wrong. During his stint with the Santa Cruz Warriors, the NBA G-League affiliate of the Golden State Warriors, he regularly shared the floor with other primary ballhandlers, including Pat Spencer and Yuri Collins. Across 34 appearances, Davis averaged 18.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 8.9 assists per game, showing he could thrive both on and off the ball.
For Davis, the answer has always been simple.
“If you’re good enough, the ball is going to find you.”
“I’m just a basketball player. I’m going to always figure it out. So that never bothered me.”
“The game is about talent and talent finds whoever that’s on the floor.”
WHY HE NEVER FEARED ANYONE
To understand why Davis embraces competition the way he does, you first need to understand where he came from.
Growing up in Houston, Davis says basketball became more than a game. It was a way out.
“If you see my background and how I grew up, I had no fear. I used to walk down the street and see people dead, you know, like my house was literally in the bottom of the bottom. That fuelled me to want to get out,” he said.
From an early age, Davis was taught that winning was about more than personal success. It was about creating opportunities for himself and his family.
“When I started playing this game at an early age, my young AAU coach who moulded me, Coach Mingo used to always tell me, ‘you’re going to be a point guard. And the only way you’re going to be able to take care of your family is if you win at your position. Not if you get 30, 50 team. If you win, you’re going to be seen.’”
“I knew in order for me to feed my mum and my family, I got to win just so I can be seen. I went to a high school nobody knew about. They didn’t even care for sports. When I went there, people were like, ‘what are you doing?’”
Coming from a difficult upbringing, Davis seized every opportunity to prove he belonged alongside the best players in the country. One of those moments came against future NBA star De’Aaron Fox.
“My freshman year I beat De’Aaron Fox,” he said.
“Nobody knew who I was. I just came into the gym and everyone was like, ‘We don’t know this team.’ De’Aaron Fox, you know, his senior year, everybody was hyped. Last game before state and I beat him. I just never feared nobody.”
Davis led Sam Houston High School to an 83-77 victory over Fox’s Cypress Lakes squad, finishing with a game-high 27 points as his team advanced to the state tournament. Fox scored 24 points in the loss.
That competitive mindset still drives Davis today.
“I just always knew it’s my mum versus your mum, my family versus your family. So I can’t respect you more than I respect my family. ‘Cause if I do, you’re going to feed your family over mine,” Davis said.
“If I let you outplay me, you’re going to feed your family more than I’m going feed mine. I love my mum, I think more than anybody loves their mum. So that’s just how I view her. Then I got a son. So I need to take care of him. So I can’t let nobody get in the way of that. And that’s just my approach.”
Those experiences, from his upbringing in Houston to competing against future NBA talent such as Fox, help explain the edge Davis brings to the court and provide insight into the mentality behind his rivalry with six-time NBL MVP Bryce Cotton.
WHY THE COTTON RIVALRY MATTERED
Despite the heated moments between them, Davis insists he has enormous respect for Cotton and everything he has achieved in the NBL.
“I love Bryce and I love everything he’s done.”
“My respect when I first entered the league, I told everybody over and over how much I admire what he’s done and how much I respect his game.”
But respect doesn’t stop him wanting what Cotton has.
“At some point it’s time for me to take the next step in my career.”
“It’s just basketball, you know. Like the fans don’t understand. It’s just basketball. It’s not life or death. Ain’t nobody dying.”
“If you win MVP, that’s a bonus that I could have got in my cheque.”
“If you win championship, I have to see you hold that trophy up for the next seven months. I want to hold that trophy up.”
“It’s love and respect, but at some point the love has to go out the door. The respect stays there.”
“And I felt like I was the biggest player in the league at that time. I was playing the best basketball in the league at that time. And I want to let the world know that.”
EMBRACING THE NOISE
Davis ultimately fell just two votes short of winning the NBL MVP award.
Instead, he walked away with something he values more: a championship ring and Finals MVP honours.
The success also provided validation after enduring criticism throughout his career, particularly following his departure from Adelaide.
“When everybody outside talked about what we need to do better, we didn’t even care. We were laughing like, man, they just trying to see us fold.”
“People had their opinions about me. So it was super fun to us because we knew everybody wanted to see Sydney fail so they could see KD fail.”
“A lot of people around the league wanted to say, ‘told you so. I told you that’s why Adelaide let him go.’ Even though that’s not what happened.”
“So when we turned it around, and Goorjian would sit and talk like, ‘A lot of the people that said it wouldn’t work are quiet now.’”
“They didn’t apologise, they just got quiet.”
“I saw a podcast in the middle of the season with Jason Cadee and Trez [Montrezl Harrell] and he was like, ‘I don’t have Sydney making the top six.’”
“But when we won the championship, you didn’t see ‘I was wrong about KD.’”
“Like Goorjian said, ‘We ain’t got no apologies yet, but we heard all the noise.’”