Sydney Kings forward Xavier Cooks was provisionally suspended for a positive test to cocaine, which carries a maximum four-year penalty.

The National Basketball League was rocked on the eve of the finals by the revelation that one of its biggest stars had been stood down due to a potential anti-doping violation, with the Kings preparing for Thursday night’s sudden-death game against the Adelaide 36ers at Qudos Bank Arena without the 203cm star.

Statements by the Kings and Basketball Australia did not specify the substance that had been detected in Cooks’ sample, only that the 29-year-old Boomers representative had been advised by Sport Integrity Australia of an adverse analytical finding.

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly, Cooks recorded a positive reading for a metabolite of cocaine and was hoping to have the matter dealt with urgently as an issue of recreational use, out of competition. The ban can be reduced to as little as a month if proven that it was taken for recreational use and not for performance-enhancing purposes.

A suspension of up to four years can be imposed for using cocaine in competition, a window that begins at 11.59pm the day before a match and extends until any sample is collected after the game.

However, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s substances of abuse provisions, introduced five years ago, allow for an athlete’s period of ineligibility to be slashed to three months if they can successfully argue it was ingested before the day of competition and was not for improving performance. That sanction can be further whittled down to a month if the athlete agrees to a treatment plan endorsed by Sport Integrity Australia, an outcome reached after Penrith Panthers player Brent Naden tested positive for cocaine after the 2020 NRL grand final.

The Kings were made aware of the issue last Friday and Cooks was withdrawn from that night’s game against the Illawarra Hawks, an absence the club attributed to personal leave.

Sources say the Cooks camp may seek an emergency hearing in a bid to have his interim suspension lifted, pressing the point that the lab finding was unrelated to improving on-court performance and should be considered out of competition.