Xavier Cooks (born 19 August 1995) is an Australian basketball player who plays for the Sydney Kings of the National Basketball League (NBL). He played college basketball for Winthrop University. A 6’8" swingman, was named the 2018 Big South Conference Player of the Year.
Early life
Cooks was born in Ballarat, Victoria to father Eric and mother Josie. His father is an African-American expatriate who became a naturalised citizen of Australia, and his mother is Australian. He was raised alongside siblings Georgia and Dominique, the latter of which formerly played professional basketball for the Illawarra Hawks. His father played college basketball for St. Mary's College in California before relocating to Australia to pursue a professional career in the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) and National Basketball League. The family moved to Wollongong when Xavier was a young age as his father accepted an assistant coaching role with the Illawarra Hawks.
College career
He chose to attend Winthrop over offers from schools such as UC Santa Barbara, Boise State, Hartford, Maine, and Nicholls State.
Xavier Cooks shooting a free throw against VCU.
On 15 February 2017, Cooks recorded the first 20-point, 20-rebound game for Winthrop since 2003. At the close of the season, he was named first-team All-Big South Conference.
In 2017, Cooks was named to the Australian "Emerging Boomers" squad for the 2017 Summer Universiade.
In the 2017–18 season, senior Cooks became Winthrop′s all-time leading rebounder. At the close of the Big South regular season, Cooks was again named first-team All-Big South and the Big South Player of the Year.
In 2020, two years after graduating from Winthrop, he was voted into the Big South Men's Basketball All-Decade Team (2010-19).