BRYCE Cotton has solidified himself with the greats of the National Basketball League (NBL) and is regarded as arguably the greatest import in competition history. With a resume of five MVPs, three Championships and two Grand Final MVPs, his accolades speak for themselves.

Whilst he is now recognised as an NBL icon, his journey which took him to where he is now is rarely discussed, filled with obstacles, setbacks and perseverance.

At the age of nine, a young Cotton would be diagnosed with epilepsy so severe that the doctor said he would not make it past the sixth grade. Treatment included daily medication, and ironically, his last seizure would be on the final day of the sixth grade.

Although Cotton’s first love was American football, he would ultimately have to throw that dream out of the window as it was unsafe for his health condition. This led him to turn to basketball, and once he started, there was no turning back.

Oddly enough, Cotton finished high school with no college offers. That was until Providence University called at the last minute to offer him a spot, with Cotton still believing the only reason they offered him a spot was that he was more of an academic standout and would boost the team’s GPA. Now that he was able to play Division 1 basketball, his dreams were brought back to life as he would have the opportunity to continue his play at an elite level.

His freshman season had its setbacks, as he would not see too much playing time and would play every game bar one coming off the bench. Without getting much game time, Cotton stayed strong-headed and patiently waited for his time to come, and that time would come in his sophomore year, where his minutes would jump from 15 to 38 minutes a night.

Now, with a higher usage rate, he would thrive in his role, and for the rest of his college career, spanning four seasons, he would improve each year. By the end of his college career at Providence, he would end with accolades such as two-time All-Big East First Team, Big East scoring champion, Honourable Mention All-American, and Big East Most Outstanding Player.

After his booming college career, Cotton decided to declare for the 2014 NBA draft, where he would be overlooked and go undrafted. The Austin Spurs of the NBA D-League (now G-League) would ultimately end up picking him up, and his play for them would not go unnoticed, as the Utah Jazz signed him where he would play 15 games, and officially playing his first season in the NBA.

The following 2015-2016 season would be an interesting one, where in one season, Cotton would play for four separate teams, moving from the Austin Spurs to the Phoenix Suns, then going to China to play one game for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, and ending his season in Memphis to play for the Grizzlies.

With such an unstable professional career bouncing around the country, he would then seek to play in the Turkish league for Anadolu Efes Istanbul, hoping to find a more stable home where he could settle down or at least have some job security.

On December 12th, 2016, Anadolu Efes Istanbul and Cotton decided to part ways, with the guard looking to be closer to home. He would ultimately return to the USA, and in January 2017, he signed with the Perth Wildcats to finish off the 2016-2017 NBL season.

The rest is history.