Sydney Kings: Five things you need to know

• The Kings won the NBL26 championship, beating Adelaide 3-2 in an overtime game five
• It is their sixth title and Brian Goorjian's seventh as a coach
• Kendric Davis set an NBL record with 52 assists in the Championship Series

The Kings are the NBL26 champions, the third title they have won in five seasons and the sixth in their history. Only Perth has won more. It is a striking position for a club that did not exist for two seasons and had to be readmitted to the league.

NBL26 SEASON SUMMARY

• Record: 24-9, finished 1st
• Semi-final series: beat Perth 2-0
• Championship Series: beat Adelaide 3-2
• Head coach: Brian Goorjian
• Captain: Xavier Cooks
• Championship Series MVP: Kendric Davis

They did not start like champions. The Kings were 2-3 in mid-October, and Tasmania coach Scott Roth described walking past the room afterwards and seeing Goorjian "slumped over and quite distraught". Roth's point was about what followed. "For about two months, all I heard about was what a bad coach he is," he said.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP

Game five was played at Qudos Bank Arena on 5 April 2026 in front of 18,589 people, an NBL record crowd, and it went to overtime.

Adelaide led by six inside the last two minutes. Back-to-back baskets from Kendric Davis, then an offensive rebound and putback from Tim Soares, levelled it. Bryce Cotton's last-second layup missed, and Sydney controlled the extra period.

Davis finished with 35 points and 14 assists and took the Larry Sengstock Medal as Championship Series MVP. Across the five games he averaged 27.2 points and 10.4 assists, and his 52 total assists are the most in a Championship Series in NBL history. Cotton, chasing Adelaide's first championship since 2002, had 35 points and nine assists in defeat.

It was Brian Goorjian's seventh NBL championship as a head coach, at 72. He was also named Coach of the Year, his second at this club after 2008.

Davis has re-signed on a two-year deal, reported to be worth about $1.2 million a season.

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Caption: Kendric Davis of the Sydney Kings after game five of the NBL Championship Series against the Adelaide 36ers at Qudos Bank Arena on 5 April 2026. Photo: [Name]/Getty Images

XAVIER COOKS AND TWO ANTI-DOPING BANS

The club's captain has served two separate one-month bans in under two years, and both are a matter of public record.

The first ran from 7 February to 7 March 2025. Cooks was provisionally suspended days before a knockout final against Adelaide, which Sydney lost 95-88 to end their season. Sport Integrity Australia notified him of an adverse analytical finding, and the resulting ban was for a finding deemed not related to performance enhancement.

Cooks addressed it publicly afterwards. "I respect the decision that was handed down," he said. "I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. It was a lapse in judgment that has affected a lot of people I care deeply about."

The second came after the championship. Basketball Australia issued a one-month period of ineligibility that concluded on 4 July 2026, after an in-competition test detected a metabolite of THC. Fox Sports reported the sample was taken after game two of the Championship Series on 27 March, a 91-89 loss to Adelaide.

Because the ban was served in the off-season, Cooks missed no games and has resumed pre-season training. "I take full responsibility for my actions and understand the disappointment and frustration this has caused," he said.

None of that is the whole of his record at the club. Cooks was the NBL Most Valuable Player in 2023, Championship Series MVP in 2022, and has won three championships in purple and gold.

THE CLUB

• Home: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney
• Founded: 1987, from a merger of the West Sydney Westars and the Sydney Supersonics
• In the NBL: 1988 to 2008, and 2010 to the present
• Owner: Hoops Capital
• Head coach: Brian Goorjian
• Captain: Xavier Cooks

The Kings have won six championships from nine Championship Series appearances, finished top of the ladder eight times and reached the finals in 20 seasons.

TEAM HISTORY

The Kings were formed in 1987 out of a merger between the West Sydney Westars and the Sydney Supersonics, and entered the NBL in 1988. Their home was the Sydney Entertainment Centre, and for a stretch of the late 1980s and early 1990s it was the loudest room in Australian basketball, with crowds above 10,000 for Damian Keogh, Dwayne McClain, Leon Trimmingham, Steve Carfino and Tim Morrissey. The building is now a food and retail precinct called Darling Square.

The success took fifteen years to arrive. Under Brian Goorjian the Kings won the championship in 2003, 2004 and 2005, the first three-peat in NBL history and still one of only two. Chris Williams, Matthew Nielsen, Shane Heal and Jason Smith drove it, and all four of the Championship Series MVP awards in that era went to Kings players.

Then it collapsed. The club was removed from the league in 2008 over its finances and did not play for two seasons. It was readmitted in 2010.

The rebuild was slow and then sudden. Andrew Bogut signed in 2018 and won the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in his first season. Under Chase Buford the Kings won back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023, with Jaylen Adams the MVP in 2022 and Xavier Cooks in 2023.

Goorjian returned, and in NBL26 the club won a third title in five seasons.

CLUB LEGENDS

Brian Goorjian has now won seven NBL championships as a head coach, three of them at Sydney in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and a fourth in 2026. He is a six-time NBL Coach of the Year and passed 850 games as a head coach in December 2025.

Matthew Nielsen won the MVP and the Championship Series MVP in the same season in 2004, and was Rookie of the Year in 1997.

Chris Williams was MVP and Championship Series MVP in the first title year, 2003.

Shane Heal was central to the era that ended in that first championship, and retired after the 2002-03 season.

Andrew Bogut won the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 and brought the club back to national attention.

Xavier Cooks is MVP in 2023, Championship Series MVP in 2022, and the current captain. Kendric Davis holds the NBL record for assists in a Championship Series.

HONOUR ROLL

• Championships: six, in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2022, 2023 and 2026
• Championship Series appearances: nine
• Finals appearances: 20
• Regular season championships: eight, in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2020, 2023 and 2026
• NBL Most Valuable Player: Chris Williams (2003), Matthew Nielsen (2004), Andrew Bogut (2019), Jaylen Adams (2022), Xavier Cooks (2023)
• NBL Championship Series MVP: Chris Williams (2003), Matthew Nielsen (2004), Jason Smith (2005), Xavier Cooks (2022), Derrick Walton (2023), Kendric Davis (2026)
• NBL Coach of the Year: Brian Goorjian (2008, 2026)
• NBL Rookie of the Year: Matthew Nielsen (1997), Derek Moore (2000), Travis Lane (2002), Gary Boodnikoff (2003), Mark Worthington (2006), Ben Madgen (2011), Anatoly Bose (2012), Angus Brandt (2015), Isaac Humphries (2018)

THE MODERN ERA, SEASON BY SEASON

• 2019-20 1st 20-8 lost the Championship Series
• 2020-21 5th 19-17 did not qualify
• 2021-22 3rd 19-9 Chase Buford, NBL CHAMPIONS
• 2022-23 1st 19-9 Chase Buford, NBL CHAMPIONS
• 2023-24 5th 13-15 lost the play-in to New Zealand
• 2024-25 5th 16-13 lost the play-in to Adelaide
• 2025-26 1st 24-9 Brian Goorjian, NBL CHAMPIONS

Three championships and two play-in exits in five seasons. The Kings have been either the best team in the league or out in a single game, with very little in between.

FIVE FAST FACTS

1. The Kings won the NBL's first three-peat, in 2003, 2004 and 2005. It is still one of only two, alongside New Zealand's run from 2011 to 2013.

2. The club was removed from the NBL in 2008 over its finances and did not play again until 2010.

3. Kendric Davis dished out 52 assists across the NBL26 Championship Series, an NBL record.

4. Game five of the NBL26 Championship Series drew 18,589 people to Qudos Bank Arena, an NBL record crowd.

5. Brian Goorjian has won seven NBL championships as a head coach and is a six-time Coach of the Year.

CLUB TIMELINE

• 1987: Formed by a merger of the West Sydney Westars and the Sydney Supersonics.
• 1988: Entered the NBL, playing at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
• 2003, 2004 and 2005: Three consecutive championships, the first three-peat in NBL history.
• 2008: Removed from the league over its finances.
• 2010: Readmitted to the NBL.
• 2018: Signed Andrew Bogut, who won the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.
• 2022 and 2023: Back-to-back championships under Chase Buford.
• 2026: Beat Adelaide 3-2 for a sixth championship, in overtime, in front of a record crowd.

WHAT NBL27 LOOKS LIKE

The champions have kept the two people who decided the championship. Davis is signed for two more years and Goorjian is still coaching at 72. Cooks is the captain and available.

Nobody has gone back-to-back since the Kings themselves in 2023. The Kings are the only club to have won three titles in the 2020s, and the question for NBL27 is whether a squad built around a 72-year-old coach and a guard who just set a Championship Series record can do it again immediately.