Shaun Bruce has taken out the Sydney Kings' Players' Player Award after the Kings just missed out on the NBL finals

The accolade was bitter-sweet for Bruce after the Kings just missed out on finals to the South East Melbourne Phoenix by a matter of percentage.

"It was great to receive that, it was something I wasn't expecting but to get that recognition from your teammates and your peers is always great," Bruce said.

"It's something I kind of pride myself on as being a great teammate and doing what I can to help others so yeah it was good to be recognised for that."

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The 30-year-old was disappointed about not making the finals but proud of how his side ended the season.

"We finished the season really well, three games to finish there, on a little win-streak and to have that momentum cut short by the percentage difference and to miss out on play offs is obviously disappointing," he said.

"We'd love to be playing now but obviously (I'm very) proud of the guys and how we finished and gave ourselves a chance."

Bruce played career-best minutes this season with an average of 24.75 minutes per game (MPG), up from 19.58 MPG last season and featured in 35 of his 36 games. He also averaged just under seven points and four assists per game.

One of Bruce's standout games came on May 29, when he led the Kings in points (21) and rebounds (7) in their double-overtime upset against the ladder-leaders Melbourne United.

The 30-year-old guard said he is "happy as a whole" with his output over the year.

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"Obviously at certain points would have liked to have been a little more consistent but as a whole I think that I played the right way and helped our team win games when we did win," he said.

The Kings, who were runners up in the 2019/20 NBL season, unfortunately, fell victim to numerous injuries and player movements throughout the 2020/21 season, something which Bruce attributed his "bigger role" to.

Key players such as Xavier Cooks, Angus Glover, Daniel Kickert and import Jarrell Martin were just some of the Kings' players to miss significant game time through injury.

Less than two weeks after playing in the Kings' final game, the former Horsham Hornet will head North this week, where he will link up with the Logan Thunder, who are undefeated from their first six rounds in the NBL1 North season.

As for the next NBL season, Bruce, who signed for another two years with the Kings in June 2020, said his side could 100% bounce back and play finals.

"I mean everyone dealt with adversity this year but I don't think anyone did as big as we did," he said.

"I mean, New Zealand were on the road obviously, that was tough on them, but we had a major injury it felt like every couple of weeks that we had to continually deal with.

"So just getting a full team back, getting some chemistry as a group I think will be key and we obviously showed the character that we had this year, so to put that together with a full group and a healthy group will be huge."

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