How Cook rekindling love for basketball led to key Kings role

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Quinn Cook has experienced the highest of highs in his NBA career and after reaching the lowest of lows, the 29-year-old point guard has fallen back in love with basketball. 

With the start of the 2022-23 NBA season just around the corner, Cook currently is fighting for a Sacramento Kings role. In his nine minutes of action in Sacramento's 105-104 win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night at Footprint Center, Cook, who scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 from 3-point range, played an integral role in Sacramento's nail-biting victory. 

In speaking with Kings radio broadcaster Gary Gerould after the game, Cook was asked about how his veteran experience can pay off down the stretch in games like Wednesday's matchup with the Suns and the role he has started to embrace with Sacramento. 

"A lot, a lot," Cook told Gerould. "That's my niche to this ballclub, a guy who has won, a guy who has been in winning locker rooms and around winning cultures, so I'm just thankful for the opportunity. The young guys, we got eight minutes, nine minutes, a lot of people would dream of this opportunity. So if it's nine minutes or it's nine seconds, we have to give it all we got. I was happy I was able to lead those guys."

After winning championships with the Golden State Warriors in 2018 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, Cook reached the mountain top in his career after accomplishing something (twice) that most players hope to experience once. Cook then battled injuries and combined to play in just 23 games for the Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2020-21 season. 

"My time with the Lakers was great, I won an NBA championship, but I came off two years with the Warriors being in the rotation every night and playing in two straight Finals," Cook added. "I got to learn from guys like [LeBron James] ... but I never really got to play. I got hurt in LA, I had a small stint in Cleveland but I was never healthy.

Unfortunately for Cook, his career would hit a new low. The Duke product would not play a single game in the NBA during the 2021-22 season.

Instead, Cook played in just 11 games for the Stockton Kings, Sacramento's G-League affiliate, where he averaged 23.5 points per game on 51.8 percent shooting from the field and 44 percent from 3-point range. After agreeing to a one-year contract with the Kings this summer, Cook has an opportunity to do something special. 

"This is everything to me, this is everything," Cook explained. "Last year when I was in Stockton, getting back on an NBA roster opening night will be my biggest accomplishment of my life because I've been through so much. I've been doubted, but I never stopped and this opportunity has been amazing. God willing everything works out, but I'm just thankful for the opportunity so far."

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At his lowest of lows, Cook credits the opportunity he received from Stockton Kings coach Bobby Jackson and general manager Paul Johnson that since has propelled him into a potential roster spot with Sacramento. 

"You can't play, you're on a 10-day contract, another suitcase, so everything kind of gets rough at some point, but it's how you respond, how you bounce back. When I got to Stockton, Bobby Jackson, Paul Johnson, they gave me an unbelievable opportunity to just be a veteran and I got to fall back in love with the game. It's the reason we play this sport because it brings a certain joy to us. I'm just thankful for the opportunity."

With the Kings' season opener against the Portland Trail Blazers just seven days away, Cook has positioned himself to offer veteran depth behind point guards De'Aaron Fox and Davion Mitchell. 

That is, of course, if he makes the roster on or before the Oct. 17 deadline. 

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