'Not being objective': Gaze backs calls for awards voting change

• ‍Bryce Cotton and Kendric Davis headline the 2026 Andrew Gaze MVP Awards‍
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• Box Scores: All 165 games of the 2025-26 NBL season

The NBL has no current plans to change its award voting process, but the man who the MVP trophy is named after insists the system must be more transparent, writes Matt Logue from CODE Sports Basketball.

Seven-time MVP and Aussie basketball GOAT Andrew Gaze is adamant the league’s voting for awards has to be made public.

Gaze’s common sense approach is shared by many across the game and comes after this year’s contentious MVP result in favour of Bryce Cotton over Kendric Davis. Cotton pipped Davis by just two votes in one of the closest MVP races in history.

For the MVP, voting is conducted by the head coach and captain of each NBL club, along with the 5-person panel of experts selected by the league. A group of 25 people vote 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for who they think is the MVP and the totals are tallied to anoint a winner.

The coach, captain and assistant coach from each of the 10 teams vote for the two All-NBL teams, which is a separate award not linked to the MVP vote.

They can’t vote for players from their own team, so it means each player can receive nods from 27 people. A first team selection is worth two votes and a second team selection is worth one vote, so a unanimous first-teamer receives 54. MVP Cotton was the only player to receive max votes, with Davis and Phoenix star Nathan Sobey landing 52 each.

It means either two voters left Davis off the All-NBL First Team or one person left him off the ballot completely, which is simply not right given the season the star King has produced.

It’s why Gaze believes all votes for awards should be in black and white for everyone to see.

“I think if you are going to use the system the NBL has, then the voting for awards has to be public because it provides more transparency,” Gaze told Code Sports.

“I’ve raised this point last week before it even became an issue.

“No system is perfect, but where the credibility is lost is when someone (voting) had him (Davis) in the NBL All-Second team because he was just two votes behind (Cotton).

“How anyone in their right mind would not have Kendric in the NBL All-First Team is clearly on another agenda and they are not being objective about it.”

Davis isn’t the only player to question the NBL’s voting system, which is voted by the players’ peers.

Three-time NBA champion and Tokyo Olympic gold medallist JaVale McGee took to social media to express his frustration after missing out on both the All-NBL First or Second teams despite producing a strong maiden NBL season with the Illawarra Hawks.

For the full story on CODE Sports Basketball, click here.