4. He has championship experience in both college and the NBA
In college, Cook might not have been the most recognizable player on the last Duke Blue Devil team to win a championship, but he was a veteran leader and captain on that team that took home the national title in 2015. Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones were the stars of the team that season, yet Cook provided a solid consistent presence and started every game for them that year.
Even with a very productive college stint at Duke, and the national championship cementing his four-year career there, he still did not get drafted into the NBA the following season. That unfortunate occurrence has been symbolic of how Cook has been underappreciated almost his entire basketball career, since being named a McDonald’s All-American in high school.
With his championship experience in college, and a will to accomplish his NBA dream, he worked until he was a contributing member on the Golden State Warriors, which had been dominating the Western Conference for the past few seasons prior to his arrival. That lead to his first NBA finals experiences in 2018 when the Warriors swept the Cleveland Cavaliers easily in route to their third title in four seasons.
Cook did not play a major role in that series, but he did make some big shots that set the stage for him to contribute even more next season. When he won this title back in 2018, he joined an exclusive list of fewer than 50 players who have won both an NBA and collegiate title in their careers.
In the 2019 finals, he made a much bigger impact due to injuries of some the major stars on the Warriors. In Game 2 of the NBA Finals, Cook had one of the best moments of his entire career by hitting three clutch three-pointers at the end of the game to seal a Warriors victory and even the series at one game apiece.
The Warriors may have been upset in the 2019 finals by the Raptors, but Cook’s play was clearly not the reason why. By the end of the series, Cook had proved that he could play some of the best basketball of his career on the biggest stage.