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Baxter Holmes
ON THE AFTERNOON of Could 12, Cooper Flagg’s quick household gathered inside his lodge room on the Marriott Marquis in downtown Chicago. There was his twin brother, Ace (who’s one minute older), his father, Ralph, and his mom, Kelly.
They completed getting dressed for the 2025 NBA draft lottery, which started later that night time at 7 p.m. native time on the McCormick Place Conference Heart, a brief stroll from their lodge.
However earlier than heading out collectively, the household of the Duke celebrity freshman, and the presumed No. 1 total decide in Wednesday’s NBA draft, spent half-hour chatting about his future.
That they had held these discussions earlier than, weighing all of the seemingly touchdown spots and what every one introduced, however this could function a remaining debrief earlier than one of the heralded American prospects in years would, later that night time, lastly know the place he’d seemingly start his NBA profession.
The household had identified for months that the Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets held the best possibilities of touchdown the highest decide, and contained in the room, they once more went over positives about every one.
Washington was a brief flight from Maine and North Carolina — the 2 states the place the household break up their time. Charlotte provided the identical, plus it had a built-in fan base for Duke alums, they mentioned. And Utah was helmed by Jazz CEO Danny Ainge, who performed for the Nineteen Eighties Boston Celtics groups that Cooper’s mother and father admired a lot and launched their sons to at a younger age.
Additionally they weighed a singular, unsolvable unfavourable. Like so many high prospects, Flagg had by no means endured sustained dropping at any degree, and nearly no matter his rookie-year efficiency, he was nearly actually about to take action. And although he lengthy maintained that he “simply wished to hoop” wherever, these round him say they harbored considerations about how the ultra-competitive prospect would regulate emotionally to such a dynamic.
“It will be onerous for me to think about Cooper going by means of a season with a number of dropping,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer advised ESPN.
Flagg’s father admitted as a lot. “It was one thing we talked about,” he mentioned.
A short while later, the household walked to the conference middle, and Flagg’s illustration provided steering: The cameras could be on them all through the night time, and particularly because the lottery order was being introduced, and any response — good or unhealthy — would result in headlines. It was finest, they advised Flagg and his household, to remain impartial.
Flagg sat in a front-row seat, subsequent to his Duke teammate, Kon Knueppel. Ralph, Kelly, Ace and Flagg’s longtime coach Matt MacKenzie sat within the row simply behind Cooper. Going through the stage, all of them watched NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum rapid-fire announce the primary 10 picks in 2 minutes and 15 seconds. However even that temporary window of time was full of stunners.
Washington and Utah had fallen out of the highest 4, whereas the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs had leapt into it.
Sitting of their seats, the household tried to take care of their composure, whereas contemplating the brand new potentialities unfolding.
Flagg had imagined, even briefly, a potential pairing with 7-foot-5 Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs’ high decide within the 2023 draft.
Then, Tatum introduced the following decide: Charlotte. That meant Dallas, San Antonio and the Philadelphia 76ers had been within the high three. The percentages of that being the case had been, in line with ESPN Analysis, simply 1%.
Then, 12 seconds later, Tatum introduced that the 76ers would decide third, and the Spurs would decide second, which meant the Mavericks, who entered the night time with a 1.8% likelihood of profitable the lottery, had received.
The Mavericks had the fourth-lowest odds to win the lottery since 1985; they jumped 10 spots, the most important by any crew for the reason that NBA modified the draft lottery format in 2019.
IN ONLY A FEW minutes, the Flagg household’s complete calculus, what that they had, for months, been outlining and planning for, modified.
The announcement despatched shockwaves throughout the NBA. A franchise — and a fan base — nonetheless recovering from the devastating midseason commerce of celebrity Luka Doncic was now positioned to draft one other generational expertise in Flagg.
From their seats, Flagg’s household was simply as shocked.
“Dallas wasn’t even on our bingo card,” his father, Ralph, mentioned.
Textual content messages poured in. Have been they joyful? Unhappy? Why weren’t they reacting? Did they notice what had simply occurred?
Their minds raced.
As an alternative of the stress of being among the best gamers on a dropping crew, he’d be on one which, only a yr in the past, went to the NBA Finals. He could be, by any narrative or measure, the person to heal the injuries left by the departure of Doncic, who by 25 had earned 5 All-Star appearances and been named first-team All-NBA 5 instances.
Flagg instantly would face a distinct stress, one few No. 1 picks have skilled: to assist a pair of All-Stars, in level Kyrie Irving and ahead Anthony Davis, win within the NBA — and quick.
“We by no means even thought-about that the unattainable may occur on Could 12,” one Mavericks crew supply mentioned. “I am unsure there has ever been a extra abrupt reversal of fortune.”
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JON SCHEYER, WHO coached Flagg for one season at Duke, watched from his lodge in Amelia Island in Florida, the place the ACC spring conferences had been being held.
“To me, it is a dream spot,” Scheyer mentioned of the Mavericks. “I actually really feel that means.”
And as Flagg and his household walked out of the conference middle that night time, they started to really feel the identical.
Two Duke gamers had been already on the roster, Irving and middle Dereck Lively II, a first-round decide within the 2023 draft. Scheyer advised Flagg quickly after that middle Khaman Maluach and Full of life had been two of the perfect folks he had coached. Flagg had performed alongside Maluach throughout his freshman season with Duke; now he’d seemingly play alongside Full of life throughout his first season within the NBA in Dallas. “Take pleasure in that!” Scheyer advised him.
Flagg may be taught from gamers who had received championships, they thought, corresponding to Irving, Davis and, they hoped, retired Dallas legend Dirk Nowitzki.
“He isn’t going to enter Dallas pondering he is acquired all of the solutions,” Scheyer mentioned. “He’ll be taught from Kyrie, he’ll be taught from [Davis]. He’ll be taught from Derek Full of life and Jason Kidd and his workers. He is coming in to be taught, and I believe that is a particular half about him.”
Like so many, the Flagg household had monitored the voluminous backlash from Mavericks followers after Doncic was traded abruptly to the Los Angeles Lakers final season. The Flaggs noticed the jersey burnings, the mock funerals, the protests.
To them, although, it represented energy — an admirable bond with the group, even when it had been badly strained.
“They’re a really passionate fan base,” Ralph mentioned, “and I believe from what we perceive and what we have seen on social media, they’re prepared to totally embrace Cooper.”
“Dallas has been fortunate for a few years,” Scheyer mentioned. “They have been capable of watch Dirk, Luka — so many profitable groups. Now, you’ve got acquired a man in Cooper, who I believe will carry that custom ahead.”
His influence on the group was felt instantly, first on the crew’s backside line.
“We surprisingly renewed 75-80% of our season tickets,” one Mavericks crew supply mentioned. “However we had a number of work to do in incomes again the arrogance and fandom of a not insignificant phase of our fan base.
“We bought $8 million in new season tickets within the three days after the lottery.”
After the backlash from the Doncic commerce, one firm that was contemplating a sponsorship partnership with the Mavericks paused, the supply mentioned. Then, after seeing the lottery and the constructive fan response, that very same firm agreed on a brand new sponsorship take care of the crew.
“We have now achieved two further new sponsor offers, one the second largest in our historical past, for the reason that luck of the lottery,” the Mavericks supply mentioned.
After the lottery, Flagg bounced throughout the nation, figuring out with MacKenzie at a health club in Westlake Village, about an hour west of Los Angeles. Flagg traveled to North Carolina to see his brother graduate from highschool, after which north to Maine to see his former classmates at Nokomis graduate from highschool.
The Flagg household already has an Airbnb booked in Las Vegas to look at him throughout summer time league. And whereas draft events are being organized in Flagg’s hometown of Newport, Maine, the household has loved a quick solace from the noise and focus of tv cameras in Westlake Village, the place Flagg continued to work out earlier than heading again to New York for the draft.
Not too long ago, the household visited a Hugo Boss retailer in Los Angeles for Flagg to be fitted for a swimsuit on draft night time. As they watched whereas specialists labored with Flagg, the gravity of the second — and what was coming subsequent, the beginning of his NBA journey — settled in for these round him. All of them checked out one another and could not consider how briskly the whole lot had flown by.
“He is in a superb place mentally,” MacKenzie mentioned. “He is in a superb place bodily, and I believe that he is prepared for this subsequent chapter of his profession.”