'Not my cross to carry': Cotton responds to KD's MVP comments

• ‍Bryce Cotton and Kendric Davis headline the 2026 Andrew Gaze MVP Awards‍
• ‍Who's the real MVP: Bryce Cotton vs Kendric Davis‍
• Box Scores: All 165 games of the 2025-26 NBL season‍
• How Bryce Cotton won his sixth NBL MVP award

Newly crowned six-time NBL MVP Bryce Cotton responded to controversy surrounding Sydney Kings star Kendric Davis's comments following the league's awards night, saying he doesn't think anything of it "at all".

Cotton won his sixth Andrew Gaze Trophy for the NBL's best player, beating out Davis by two points on Monday night in one of the closest votes in league history, but the Kings point guard later called out voters on an Instagram Live video calling for votes to be made public.

“Let's see who voted for who, so we know, like, what's going on, like the NBA," Davis said on Instagram Live following the event.

“All I know is you put, you put my stats up against his (Cotton’s) stats and take our faces off and tell the NBA vote on who should win MVP,  I guarantee you I'll come out on top, guaranteed.

"But, you know, how they go — political at his best."

Appearing on the latest edition of Cut to the Jase with former Adelaide 36er Jason Cadee, Cotton said he's just focused on himself and his team heading into playoffs.

"No, I I don't think anything of it at all," he said on the basketball.com.au podcast.

"Those type of things, that's not my cross to carry. I focus on myself, my team, and that's it.

"If I spent time worrying about the opinions of others, I wouldn't have gotten nowhere near as far as I've gotten in this league."

"It's a big help because, you know, really like living in that mindset, it just eliminates so many possible distractions that could take away from your energy. You know the old saying where attention goes, energy flows or whatever.

"I just I try to be mindful of what I give my awareness to and if it's not conducive to me being better as a player, I I'm not going to pay it any mind."

That being said, the lead-up to the presentation of the NBL26 MVP award was like no other, following 36ers coach Mike Wells and Kings coach Brian Goorjian both making statements about their respective star players.

Cotton admitted the lead-up was different, compared to his five previous MVP wins, but for other reasons.

"I mean, I think it felt a little bit different just because, you know, I was playing for a new team for the first time," he said.

"Just making those like adjustments like all of us adjusting to each other. We had so many new players this year, a a couple first year assistant coaches and all that. So, just kind of taking it in the fact that everybody on our team has had to make so many adjustments in their own right and forget my award, the fact that we were able to finish top two as well.

"It was just a a huge honour and it just felt good knowing all the work that we've put in throughout the year. The awards night overall was like a pretty good day for Adelaide, that was what I was like most happy about.

Now sitting just one MVP award away from the great Andrew Gaze and considered to be the second greatest player in NBL history behind the Melbourne Tigers legend, Cotton said it was an honour to be considered amongst names like that.

"It's basically again a testament of how far I've come in this league I think in I guess a relatively short time," he said.

"But at the end of the day, I truly respect the game, I respect the guys that I play against now, I respect the get the guys from way back in the day. I would never come out and say I'm this or I'm that but the fact that people think enough to put me in the basically top tier echelon, it's a huge compliment.

"But I never try to get too swayed by what other people think of me, whether it's good or bad. I only focus on how I view myself as a player and and where I feel I rank throughout the history of the league or what I've done from where I've started since a young kid."