Newly minted NBL championship series MVP Kendric Davis has promised if he is not in the NBA next season, he will return to the Sydney Kings.
Davis won the Larry Sengstock Trophy for his role guiding the Kings to a 3-2 championship series defeat of Adelaide, sealed by Sunday's manic 113-101 overtime win in game five.
After finishing with 35 points and 14 assists, the Texan point guard said the Kings had helped him fall in love with basketball again following a messy split with the 36ers over the off-season.
His award, decided by compiling 3-2-1 votes from a judging panel across the five games, may go some way towards placating Davis for missing out on the MVP gong earlier in the season.
Davis memorably took to social media to voice his displeasure at finishing second in the league MVP stakes to 36ers gun Bryce Cotton, his rival across the championship series.
Regardless, Davis expressed his gratitude at the Kings for taking a chance on him this season.
"You never want to be determined off one bad relationship and that's what it felt like. Whether it was my fault, their fault, I think it was both our fault of why it didn't work (at Adelaide)," he said.
"Just for me, to get all the blame, I couldn't even click on Instagram at the beginning of the year. You just see all the hateful things."
At Sunday's post-match press conference, Davis said teammates Xavier Cooks and Matthew Dellavedova and coach Brian Goorjian had reignited him.
"These guys kept uplifting me," he said.
"I fell in love with basketball again because of these people right here on this table."
The Kings have reportedly engaged Davis in talks for a contract extension to remain at the club beyond this season.
Keeping top-tier American talent is notoriously difficult for NBL clubs given the salaries on offer in European leagues.
But Davis is enthusiastic about the prospect of returning to the Kings, provided a maiden NBA stint does not come to fruition.
"If I'm not in the NBA, I'll be back here," he said.
"You don't find too many organisations that don't believe the hype and do their own research, and they did. I'm a loyalty guy. They mean the world to me."
