WATCH THE NBA’S TANKERS CONGREGATE TO FIX GAMES AND DRAFT COOPER FLAGG
We’ll call them “Flaggers” after watching a 17-year-old almost beat the U.S. Olympic team, realizing a white kid from Maine is one of the league’s biggest stories — and franchise saviors — in years
Do not call them tankers. From this point on, when shifty-eyed executives await the 2025 NBA draft in chokebombing Detroit and Chicago and Washington, they’ll be known as “Flaggers.” There is a particular reason to fail deliberately, though I never would. His name is Cooper Flagg. He is 17. This week, he played in a scrimmage against the U.S. Olympic team.
He won.
Suddenly, a league including too many Euro MVPs — proudly predominated by Black superstars for decades — can ultra-focus on a phenom from Newport, Maine. A closet son of Larry Bird, perhaps? Is this real, where Flagg appears in Las Vegas after growing up in a town of 3,000 (with “Moose Warning” signs) and almost pushed a Select team past LeBron James, Steph Curry and one of the badass collections ever created. Never mind that coach Steve Kerr thinks every Olympian will reach the Hall of Fame.
At 6-9, the teen gave every deceitful owner a rush of wild images that could lead to gag jobs next regular season. A three-pointer from the corner over Anthony Davis? A mad putback on the boards despite a foul from Bam Adebayo? A turnaround down low on Jrue Holiday? Flagg’s team lost, 74-73. So why was James smiling with a big hug — a much better Bronny! — after absorbing an estimated 17 points in practice?
We love Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama and Giannis Antetokounmpo. The NBA always will thirst on the cred of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron. But who is Cooper Flagg? Dominating pre-Games action as the first college player to participate in 11 years? My gosh, at 88, Jerry Reinsdorf actually might care about helping the Bulls. Will he tell them to lose 67 games and fight the Pistons, Wizards and Trail Blazers for the No. 1 pick? Flagg will go to Duke for one season and contend for a national title.
What’s next? Saving an NBA team when several are up for sale, including the Finals champion Boston Celtics? “He looks like a hell of a player,” Kevin Durant said. “He’s 17 years old coming in here playing like a (veteran) almost. No emotion. Just going out there and doing his job. That’s a good sign.”
“He wants it,” Devin Booker said. “I know this experience, he’s going to take with him and move forward.”
“He kicked butt here. There’s a respect factor for what he’s done. A high basketball IQ, tough, willing to learn,” said Jamahl Mosley, who coaches the Orlando Magic and ran the Spirit team. “I mean, he can play. There's no in-between. There's me saying, in many different forms, he can just flat out play.”
So, from a hometown with two gas stations and one Walmart that lingers 100 miles north of Portland, Flagg sounds like he belongs. Should he be placed on the Olympic squad? I’m not the only one wondering, knowing Durant has calf issues.
“I was shocked, I was surprised, and I was really excited for this opportunity,” Flagg said. “And I’m just really blessed that I was able to come out and capitalize on it and show what I have. I was really grateful to come out and learn. That was the biggest thing for me, just being able to learn and grow, to share a gym with all of these great, great names. Legends. So, I’m just truly blessed.”
Did it not occur to him that he was knocking heads with the greatest? “Once the ball goes up, I’m just trying to win at all times,” Flagg said. “I’m just a competitor, and that’s what it boils down to. It’s a little bit of an adjustment, being on the court with them, but at the same time I’m just playing basketball and trying to learn. I think the physicality, and just the level of where I want to get to, there’s a lot to get better at, a lot where I need to keep improving. This showed just how big the details are.”
The details are these: How much taller and how much better will he become? He’ll face bigger names in college basketball and prepare himself for the NBA. The league’s second financial apron is chasing off prime owners, including Boston’s Wyc Grousbeck and Dallas’ Mark Cuban. Maybe Flagg should have appeared earlier.
There are teams he could save. Maybe Detroit, maybe Portland, maybe Washington, maybe Charlotte. Chicago? In sports heaven, if it exists, who wants him to help a team that crashed in the 26 years since ownership ruined a dynasty?
“Best NBA player of all time?” someone asked Flagg.
“Michael Jordan, the G.O.A.T.,” he said.
“Best NBA team ever?”
“1985-86 Celtics,” he said.
How about: best team for Cooper Flagg?
San Antonio, with Gregg Popovich, with Wembanyama.
Let the Flaggers convene, at least a dozen of them, maybe more to come.
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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.