Dallas head coach Jason Kidd hailed an ‘unbelievable day for the Mavericks’ because the group landed the primary general decide within the NBA Draft.
The Cooper Flagg sweepstakes got here to a dramatic finish on Monday night time because the Mavericks defied a slim 1.8% probability of touchdown the No 1 decide.
After the fanbase was left heartbroken by the mind-boggling commerce which despatched franchise star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February, new life has been breathed into the Mavericks.
Subsequent month’s draft in Brooklyn will nearly definitely see Dallas choose former Duke Blue Satan Flagg, just lately named the consensus nationwide participant of the 12 months and first-team All-American.
Kidd instructed DLLS Community: “Unimaginable day for the Mavericks. We’re all so excited.”
WATCH: The perfect of Cooper Flagg’s freshman 12 months at Duke
Flagg, a 6-foot-9 ahead, has been considered the highest recruit within the 2025 class since profitable a number of nationwide highschool participant of the 12 months honors as a senior.
The 18-year-old received each ACC Participant of the Yr and ACC Rookie of the Yr awards – becoming a member of Zion Williamson, Marvin Bagley III and Jahil Okafor as the one gamers in convention historical past to realize the feat in the identical season.
He averaged 19.2 factors, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists a recreation in faculty as Duke fell to a slim defeat in opposition to Houston within the NCAA nationwide championship recreation final month.
Even earlier than taking part in a single faculty recreation, Flagg was named to the USA Choose Workforce to observe with the US males’s nationwide group earlier than they jetted off to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
{The teenager} instructed ESPN post-lottery: “This complete expertise for me has been superb. Simply gonna sit up for, such as you stated, being a two-way participant.
“That’s one thing that I’ve accomplished since I used to be slightly child, so I’m simply gonna attempt to preserve doing that to the perfect of my capacity.”
