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Tim McMahon
seventeen year old cooper flag He had not yet played a game for Duke when he arrived at UNLV’s Mendenhall Center. Afternoon of 8th July 2024.
But he piqued the curiosity of future Hall of Famers preparing to travel to Paris to play for Team USA in the 2024 Olympics.
Flagg has been the most hyped and anticipated American high school prospect since Lebron JamesJoe Flagg was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft more than three years before he was born. James and the rest of Team USA were familiar with Flagg’s name, if not yet with his game.
It had been over a decade since an amateur had been invited to play for a Team USA select team. Doug McDermott And marcus smart He was an accomplished collegian when he got the call in 2013.
This scrimmage at Team USA’s training camp will be the biggest test yet for the teenage phenom. Will Flagg be intimidated facing the perennial All-Stars he grew up watching on TV? Would he be nervous playing in a small gym around the court with NBA coaches and executives?
Answer: Not at all.
“Zero Nerves,” 10-time All-Star anthony davis told ESPN, recalling his first impressions of the 6-foot-9 forward, who will start with them this season dallas mavericks‘ Frontcourt. “He went out and threw the ball.”
Flagg is back in Las Vegas for one last tuneup entering his rookie season, as the Mavericks play Los Angeles Lakers in its preseason finale Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena. But Flagg’s welcome-to-the-NBA moment occurred about two and a half miles away 15 months ago, when he made it clear he could make an immediate impact in the league, even though he would have to wait a season to become draft-eligible.
Flagg was already the unanimous favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft when he arrived at the Team USA training camp in Vegas. If there was any doubt that he would go No. 1 in the draft, it was put to rest by the end of the scrimmage, when the Olympic team mounted a flag-fueled comeback to win 74–73.
This increased the anticipation for Flagg as he headed to Duke, where he again exceeded expectations, earning national player of the year honors while leading the Blue Devils in every major statistical category en route to an ACC title and a Final Four appearance.
Now, with the veteran player-laden Mavs brilliantly cashing in on 1.8% lottery odds to land Flagg with the No. 1 pick, the hope is that Flagg can expand his game as a rookie while proving himself as the rare teen who is ready to impress in the NBA right away.
“I don’t know if it was about proving something to myself or just feeling comfortable and gaining confidence from that experience,” Flagg told ESPN. “I definitely just had that feeling that I knew I belonged there. I knew I could be there.”
while studying the tape After everything Flagg did at Duke, Mavs coach Jason Kidd wondered if Flagg could do even more.
Kidd caught glimpses of another former Duke star in the flag game: Grant Hill, who shared the Rookie of the Year award with Kidd in 1994–95, when the 6-foot-8 Hill made headlines. detroit pistonsKidd saw in Flagg the same phenomenal mix of emotion and force that Hill had seen coming out of Duke.
“I saw that too,” Hill, who as managing director of Team USA invited Flagg to join the program’s select team and called some of its college games for CBS, told ESPN. “He tries to play the whole game. You look up and he has 22 points and it doesn’t even look like he wanted to score. He’s very unselfish. He plays defense. He just tries to do what’s needed to win the game.”
When Flagg arrived in Dallas, Kidd set out to figure out how he could handle the point guard responsibilities. Kidd also wanted to see how Flagg would handle an unfamiliar role. This experiment began during their brief stint in the Las Vegas Summer League, which yielded mixed results as the Mavs split the two games that the Flaggs played at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Flagg shot poorly in the summer opener, going 5-21 from the field, but found his way to put his fingerprints on the decisive sequence of the win over the Lakers. With a little more than a minute remaining, Flagg swooped in from the weak side for a layup attempt, pushed the ball in transition, drew three defenders in the paint and passed to a teammate for an open 3-pointer that gave Dallas the lead for good.
Flagg scored 31 points in 31 minutes in the second game, leading to a loss San Antonio SpursThe Mavs had seen a lot – being particularly pleased with how Flagg handled pressure when bringing the ball up the court – and shut him down for the rest of Summer League.
“He handled the situation like an 18-year-old can handle it,” said Kidd, who started Flagg at point guard in a jumbo-sized lineup in Monday’s preseason win. utah jazz“He has the talent to win. It’s in his DNA, and so it would be unfair not to make him uncomfortable.”
most memorable Moments of flag time at the national team training camp, according to orlando magic Coach Jamahl Mosley, who was in charge of Team USA’s select team, was not present during the scrimmage. They took place during some practices and meetings previously organized by the selected team.
Flagg’s curiosity and intelligence impressed Mosley, who particularly enjoyed the intense dialogue between Flagg and the Magic Guard. jalen suggs About the intricacies of NBA defense.
“He asked a lot of questions,” Mosley told ESPN. “I think it’s huge for a young guy in this situation to be able to ask the right questions. He just wanted to understand what it looks like at the next level. He’s a communicator, and that told me a lot about him. Guys with a high basketball IQ who want to play the right way will ask questions.”
Flagg then performed fearlessly in the scrimmage.
“He wasn’t afraid of the moment and who he was going up against,” Mosley said. “He was himself. I think he came in with a quiet confidence, but then when he got on the court with those guys, his demeanor didn’t change.”
If there was such a thing as a signature stretch during the scrimmage, Flagg put one together with a late scoring flurry as the Select team overcame a double-digit deficit. He hit a baseline turnaround from the left block over junior holidayHe rose up from the right wing to drill an off-dribble 3 into Davis’ face. And the flag flew for another one tip-in over bomb adebayoA roar was heard from the entire selected team bench.
Those three buckets came against a trio of defenders with a combined 16 All-Defensive Team selections. Flagg celebrated none of them, maintaining a calm, focused sense of peace. He called his select team stint “a big learning experience”, but Flagg was surprised by what he did not do against the Olympians.
“He was cooking,” Davis said. “He definitely stood out. People were obviously hearing the name, and we all knew who he was. But a lot of guys do, I don’t want to say hesitation, but when you’re going up against guys like me, Braun, Steph [Curry]You look at these guys and it’s like, ‘Oh s—.’
“You look up to these guys and idolize them, and now you have to play against them. You kind of get nervous, which is normal. But for him, he has tremendous confidence in himself.”
Flagg’s scoring dominated media coverage of the scrimmage, but it did not make the strongest impression on former Team USA coach Steve Kerr. Kerr was surprised by Flagg’s grasp of the game at such a young age compared to elite competition.
“I just remember the force you felt,” Kerr told ESPN. “You felt him right away. And it was as a basketball player. It wasn’t just that he had a big dunk or something. No. It was the passing, the cutting, the late-clock, the left-handed jump hook on the block when there was nothing else going on on offense. It was very consistent.
“I’m coaching against him and we have the best players. He has unbelievable experience. He’s huge but plays like a guard in terms of reading the game.”
Kerr remembered seeing Duke coach John Scheyer in the gym after the scrimmage.
“I said, ‘That should make you feel good,'” Kerr said. “He just smiled.”
Kid knows the feeling.
ESPN’s Anthony Slater contributed to this report.
