IMAGINE, AMERICA: WE’VE DEVELOPED A “BAD-ASS, COLD-ASS WHITE BOY” IN COOPER FLAGG
Kevin Garnett made the statement, and in truth, Flagg should be the first white American since 1977 to be chosen No. 1 in the NBA draft — in a league that hasn’t had a white U.S. MVP since Larry Bird
He is pointing at the Duke bench, laughing hard, curling his tongue. Cooper Flagg is the next great basketball player on your hardwood and mine. He wears No. 2. He makes three-pointers, blocks shots, moves effortlessly to the basket, stops and pops, grabs rebounds, makes steals, plays almighty defense and won’t commit bad turnovers. He is from Maine, better than any lobster with a stick of drawn butter.
And he is white.
“We ain’t had no bad-ass, cold-ass white boy like this in a long time,” Kevin Garnett said on his podcast. “That’s some real s—.”
My sportswriting life is color blind. Would you like to readjust my jawbone after years of watching Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant? The other night, LeBron James attached artistry to his thrill of playing ball. “It’s just the rhythm. You can really watch a game on mute and then play music at the same time, and you can see a cadence of how someone dribbles and how someone moves,” he said. “It’s just a feel. It’s beautiful to play the game at such a great rhythm, and that’s what R&B is, rhythm and blues, hip-hop is like that, and rock and roll is like that. It’s just a super dope cadence, like, it’s a beautiful thing.”
That said, someone is certain to point out that Flagg is breaking precedent. He’ll be the first white American in 48 years to be selected No. 1 in the NBA draft. Kent Benson was the last, and if you’d like to cite the last white American to win the league’s MVP award, he would be Larry Bird from 1984 through 1986. Forty years makes us ask what has happened on our courts. Europeans have dominated voting — Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Dirk Nowitzki and, most likely, a Canadian this season in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander after countryman Steve Nash won twice. Luka Doncic and Victor Wembanyama are waiting. The game’s greats have won — James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, all the way back to Jordan and Magic Johnson in the late ‘80s and ‘90s.
But the only other white Americans to win the award were Bill Walton in 1978, Dave Cowens in 1973, Bob Pettit twice in the ‘50s and Bob Cousy once. Is Flagg next? What’s he doing, confusing the sociological picture at the quarter pole of the 21st century? Were white guys playing quarterback (like Tom Brady) and center field (like Mike Trout)? Flagg is 6-9 and wowed the universe in Las Vegas when practicing with the U.S. Olympic team. Expect him to win the Wooden Award as one of history’s most dominant freshmen, which would be heightened if he leads the Blue Devils to their first national title since Mike Krzyzewski retired.
He does not care about race. He is 18. “For me, it’s about just playing basketball,” Flagg said. “As far as hype and all that goes, that’s something you learn to deal with.” Yet there are NBA franchises — none of which will admit it — that would love to rebuild their foundations around a “bad-ass, cold-ass white boy,” as Garnett said. Racism should not exist, but in some places, it certainly does. That’s one reason we’re scoping the league’s three worst teams, each of which will have a 14 percent chance at the No. 1 pick. Washington is at 11-49. Charlotte is at 14-46. Utah is at 15-46.
Is it possible Flagg won’t commit to those three? Last month, he was so exuberant about staying in Durham that he told The Athletic: “S—, I want to come back next year.” The NIL money would be so monstrous, at Duke, that he could stick around and contend for another championship while not dealing with NBA misery. Monday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, fans were chanting, “One more year!” — and Flagg waved a finger in the air as he said, “Run that back.” His parents were in the stands, smiling at the thought. Who wants to spend his 19th year with the Hornets, Wizards or Jazz? He’d be happier if he caught a lottery break — Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio with Wembanyama.
“I’m living in the present right now,” Flagg said. “I’m living in the moment. Taking it day by day, practice by practice, game by game. I don’t know what the future holds. I was playing with a lot of emotion and a lot of fire.
“The feeling I had — the crowd, it was the loudest it's been all year. I was back on defense, and I could feel the building shaking. This is the best place in college basketball, for sure. I’ve loved every single minute of being here. It's been an amazing year.”
March will bring energy to an NCAA tournament with Flagg, white-suited Rick Pitino at St. John’s and SEC powers at Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee. We have good reasons to watch when, a year ago, we were among 18.9 million viewers watching Caitlin Clark in the women’s championship game. When you see Duke, don’t forget Flagg’s favorite all-time player.
“I’d say Larry Bird,” he said, growing up northeast of Boston in Newport, Maine. “I watched a lot of movies and stuff on him, and old championship games, so probably him. My parents really loved watching him play, they were huge Celtics fans, so growing up for them, they were Larry Bird fans, so they had the old games and stuff, so they just threw the DVDs in and we would watch.”
White Americans? We have a few. Tyler Herro made the All-Star Game. Chet Holmgren and Alex Caruso could win a title in Oklahoma City. Payton Pritchard might be the best sixth man in Boston. Austin Reaves is the No. 3 element in Los Angeles, as Dalton Knecht enters off the bench. Donte DiVincenzo helps Anthony Edwards in Minnesota. Christian Braun has a championship ring in Denver. T.J. McConnell is a keeper in Indiana. Grayson Allen is in Phoenix.
But here we are, about to Raise The Flagg.
“I just hope everybody recognizes, if we were in more close games, his numbers would be like this a lot,” said Duke coach Jon Scheyer, who watched him score 28 points with 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks. “He's so unselfish. I wanted to put him back in just for people to recognize him and see what he's done. He plays so hard, he's competitive, he's a great teammate, and obviously his ability is special.”
He plays at Duke, which will engender the usual clashes against the white kid, as seen with Christian Laettner, JJ Redick and Allen. Flagg’s team has won four straight games by at least 30 points. “We are playing at a really high level,” he said.
Meaning, prepare for his month.
Prepare for his life.
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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.