FLAGG IN DALLAS IS NICO’S STUNNING REVENGE — AND THE NBA SHOULD BE PROBED
Crazily, the team that traded Luka Doncic has landed the No. 1 pick in the draft, and for those who wonder about weirdness — Brunson also is leading Boston 3-1 — the drama is lathered in murkiness
The first revenge for Nico Harrison, though he’ll never admit it publicly, was watching an overweight Luka Doncic injure his back and lose early in the postseason. The second revenge? Somehow, despite the death threats and racial epithets against him, he landed what might be called an all-time stinker in the NBA’s draft lottery.
Did you think Patrick Ewing to the Knicks reeked? Did you think LeBron James to the Cavaliers reeked? Did you think Derrick Rose to the Bulls reeked? Explain how the Dallas Mavericks, holding only 1.8 percent of odds, landed the first overall pick only weeks after Harrison hired a full-time security team.
The pick is Cooper Flagg, unless Harrison takes a call from Giannis Antetokounmpo’s agent and thinks about shipping Flagg to Milwaukee. The “Fire Nico!” chants suddenly have turned to a creepy mystery: How did one bizarre ping-pong roll allow the Mavericks — who still have Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson -- to become Western Conference contenders when the Lakers, Doncic and LeBron James are about to crack? This as Jalen Brunson, who left the Mavericks for the Knicks, scores 39 points and gives his team a 3-1 series lead over the defending champion Boston Celtics, who could be without a tearful and leg-staggered Jayson Tatum.
Doncic and Brunson gone, here comes Flagg. Celtics gone, Knicks with their biggest win in 25 years.
What? Harrison almost fell out of his chair in the war room. Governor Patrick Dumont, at his daughter’s track meet, received a thrilled call from former owner Mark Cuban.
If you were stunned, consider Flagg, who was brought to the ESPN studio minutes later and looked shocked. Imagine if he joins the Mavs and ends up playing next May or June? No longer does he worry about being stuck in Utah, Washington or Charlotte. Was this a rehash of choosing to play at Duke? Assuming the Mavericks keep him, the San Antonio Spurs — two years after landing the No. 1 pick for Victor Wembanyama — slid into the second pick Monday night and might be in the hunt for Antetokounmpo, which would create an all-time inside combination of a 6-11 monster and a 7-4 unicorn?
Conspiracy talk will overwhelm the playoffs, this when the Pope is American. Don’t believe the palace intrigue, commissioner Adam Silver is saying with his henchmen. Said Mavericks CEO Rick Welts, who knows lottery tales: “I’m the only person who was in this room and the room 40 years ago. I was in charge of the NBA draft lottery 40 years ago when Patrick Ewing won. I've been doing conspiracy theory stories ever since. This is very surreal, personally.”
Surreal? Slippery? “I am so happy for Mavericks fans,” Welts said. “I only got to Dallas January 1st this year. February 1st, we broke the internet (with the Doncic trade). I am just amazed at the depth of emotion and connection that the fan base has with this team. And what happened today, I can't imagine a better day for Mavs fans. It's going to really be something special. I can't wait to get back to Dallas.”
The NBA is changing in a mad rush, with new TV deals, as we evidently see the Knicks joined in the championship hunt by magnificent Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder and Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers. You might not trust Silver. Michael Jordan has agreed to join NBC as a special contributor to NBA coverage, and if he dares to speak — like his former friend, Charles Barkley — he would have plenty to say about lottery scams. Chances are, he won’t. I’m not sure what Flagg thinks.
“This is what I’ve dreamed of,” he said, as his parents sat dumbfounded in the stands in Chicago. “I didn’t think about it too much — it was out of my control — and I’m just trying to enjoy the experience.”
The Mavericks sent Rolando Blackmon, their former guard, to sit in the lottery chair. He came out grinning. “For us, it’s been a rough year, as you all know,” he said. “We have a chance to move our franchise forward and continue in that position. It’s a great piece of the puzzle. We want to hoop down in Dallas.”
For all we know, Pope Leo XIV has little interest in the Mavericks. On Monday at the Vatican, he signed a baseball — “Sox or Cubs?” he asked an attorney who likes the White Sox, not saying if he’d draw crosses if the answer was Cubs. But if sports is on his mind, he would love the strange resilience of Harrison and wonder about world peace if Giannis plays with Victor? Does the Pope really care? Hey, he’s the one who showed up at the 2005 World Series, where the Sox needed a pontiff to win for the first time since 1917. Times are busy for Robert Francis Prevost, who said of President Trump: “We do not need loud and forceful communication, but rather communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice.”
Yet he does love the Knicks. A Chicago native, the Pope attended Villanova and must breathe hope into the Nova Knicks. Brunson, who went to high school in north suburban Chicago, is coached by Tom Thibodeau, who was fired as coach of the brutal Bulls. One more victory Wednesday night in Boston will create title fever. Tatum had 42 points when he lunged for a loose ball and cried in the tunnel on a wheelchair.
“Tough to watch. Obviously you're always concerned about someone's health. So it's two-fold,” said Celtics coach Joel Mazzulla. "We're concerned about his health, where he's at, and we're concerned about what we have to do better for Game 5 when we get back to Boston. They’ll be ready. I mean, that's just who they are. It's been that way. It's the locker room that they have, and they'll be ready. So, you trust the character of the guys in moments like this, and you take it one game at a time.”
Said Brunson: “We’ve got one more. Got to focus. We’re playing a really good team and I don’t think we’re even playing our best basketball yet.”
He also said: “Prayers out to JT, man. Thoughts and prayers with him. Just praying for the best.”
Said Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown: “It’s tough. There’s not really a lot to say.”
The rise of the Knicks comes as the Timberwolves take a 3-1 games lead over the Golden State Warriors, who will not overcome the left hamstring strain of Steph Curry. Edwards seems prepared to burst to the Finals, which will draw the attention of Jordan, who likely will contribute minimally. Oh, wouldn’t we love to hear his legendary boldness, but chances are, he’s more in tune with golf and tequila and fighting NASCAR legally.
He will not offer gambling selections. “Sorry I can’t be with you. I am so excited to see the NBA back on NBC," Jordan said in a taped speech. "The NBA on NBC was a meaningful part of my career, and I’m excited about being a special contributor to the project. I’m looking forward to seeing you all when the NBA on NBC launches this October."
He will not tell the world he’s better than LeBron James. He should. He won’t. “In what capacity? That’s what I want to know!” Stephen A Smith shrieked. “I just wanna know, is it gonna be the Michael Jordan you see on television? Or is it gonna be the Michael Jordan we speak to? Because if it’s the Michael Jordan we speak to, it’s gonna be epic. It’s gonna be epic! This brother, the things that he will say and the way that he says them and the way that he breaks them down? Lord have mercy! But if it’s NBC and the little kids are out there watching and, you know, he wants to mind his manners about every syllable he utters — eh — he’ll be alright.”
The beauty of the Pacers charging toward the Eastern Conference finals — blowing out the Indianapolis 500 for the second consecutive year — is to see why Haliburton is the NBA’s “most overrated” player. He made the U.S. Olympic team and owns a gold medal despite watching most of the Paris proceedings, earning him the hangdog rating among NBA peers in The Athletic. No man who reaches down and lifts “big balls” while beating the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in Games 1 and 2 is overrated. Haliburton remains a clutch player in a Midwestern market where the Pacers are nationally ignored, despite a 3-1 series lead.
“I think at this point, it’s just more something to laugh at,” Haliburton said. “S—, Rick was not a fan.”
Rick Carlisle is his coach, also under-regarded in the league. He noticed Haliburton was ranked not far ahead of Jimmy Butler and Giannis Antetokounmpo. “I wanna see the guy’s faces that voted (for) those guys. I wanna see the faces of those guys,” Carlisle said. “This is a bulls— poll. Not everybody even answered in the poll, all right? Guys were able to answer (only) if they wanted to.”
Haliburton receives calls and texts he cherishes — from Caitlin Clark, who plays in the same arena, and fellow Olympians Jayson Tatum and Joel Embiid. “At some point, worrying about what my peers think only holds so much weight. I think my peers (whom) I really respect, that changes things,” he said. “For that poll, there’s no names to faces, it’s all anonymous. Having relationships with guys like Jayson and Joel, who are guys that I know at the top of the game, them being honest with me, that’s important. I respect their opinions more than anybody.”
Will he wind up in the NBA Finals? Probably not. Tatum apparently will, now that the Celtics have quieted the Knicks.
“For me, I just control what I can, man,” Haliburton said. “Overrate that. It’s just basketball, bro. I get paid a lot of money to play a child’s game. I love my job. Criticism is sometimes warranted, sometimes it’s not.”
Indiana. New York. Minneapolis. Maybe Oklahoma City.
No Lakers. No Warriors. No Celtics.
Flagg in Dallas. Giannis in San Antonio?
Who is investigating the league?
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.