DURHAM, N.C. — It’s 45 minutes after a January blowout at Cameron Indoor Stadium when Cooper Flagg comes strolling into the gameday hospitality space for Duke basketball gamers’ households. Nobody makes a lot of a fuss. There’s a recreation of Pop-A-Shot over right here and a pingpong desk over there. Tables are stuffed by mothers and dads, brothers and sisters.
On this night time, the hosts have once more toyed with some poor guests for the higher a part of two hours, penning one other ACC victory within the lengthy stalk to March. The Blue Devils have rolled for the higher a part of this season behind a triumvirate of freshman lottery picks, together with one who can seemingly do issues nobody else can. Not at this degree, at the very least. That’s Flagg, and right here he’s, head ducked, peering out from underneath the hood of a brown sweatshirt, trying like a 6-foot-9, 205-pound monk, one who’s about to get some dangerous information.
“We’re telling all of your secrets and techniques,” says Kelly Flagg, Cooper’s mother, glancing over her left shoulder.
Expressionless, Flagg pushes apart the hammy joke and pulls out a chair to take a seat at a close-by desk. He plops down subsequent to his older brother, Hunter, and chats along with his grandfather Dan Bowman. Grandpa is sporting a shirt logoed CAA — Inventive Artists Company — the mega-firm that counts Flagg amongst a basketball clientele that features Chris Paul, Donovan Mitchell and Paul George.
Kelly and Ralph Flagg let Cooper be, returning to the dialog. Mother tends to dominate chats like this, slicing in like an 18-wheeler altering lanes with no sign. Cooper is claimed to get his basketball moxie from her. His peak and guarded disposition, in the meantime, come from dad, 6-foot-9 Ralph. That is all a part of an origin story that’s been advised and retold lately, the story that’s led everybody right here, to this second. As she does when issues of Cooper’s booming fame are mentioned, Kelly lowers her voice to share this half. She leans in to elucidate that everybody agrees it’s in all probability a foul concept for Cooper to have a girlfriend in what’s going to (very seemingly) be his solely 12 months as a school pupil. “I feel that’s sensible,” she provides. “It’s secure to not have any emotions.”
Such are the concessions of Flagg’s quick observe. The bullet prepare from Maine schoolboy to mainstream celebrity; the catch-him-if-you-can school expertise; the fact that what’s coming subsequent is likely to be not like something anybody might’ve ever imagined.
It’s been a trip powered by prodigious expertise, an limitless work ethic and the household’s complete dedication to get Flagg the place he’s going. Cooper has been thought-about the most effective present American-born NBA prospect for some time now, a standing cemented throughout final summer season’s efficiency in opposition to LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Staff USA at a pre-Olympic coaching camp in Las Vegas. He seemingly would’ve been the No. 1 choose in final 12 months’s draft, not to mention this 12 months’s draft, if not for the NBA’s minimal age requirement guidelines. It was way back accepted that he would seemingly be the most effective freshman in school basketball this season.
However this? Flagg’s season has morphed into one thing else. The every day buzz surrounding him has grown to a degree that just about distracts from one thing that in all probability must be stated out loud — that each one the makings are there for Younger Cooper Flagg to pen one of many nice particular person seasons in school basketball historical past.
Give it some thought. Since freshman NCAA eligibility was first enacted in 1972-73, solely two freshmen, Durant and Zion Williamson, have earned unanimous males’s Nationwide Participant of the 12 months honors. Anthony Davis barely missed out on unanimous NPOY honors, however grew to become one among 4 freshmen ever named Most Excellent Participant of the Closing 4 whereas main a crew to the nationwide championship. The others: Pervis Ellison, Carmelo Anthony and Tyus Jones. No freshman ever, in the meantime, has led his crew in each main statistical class and performed within the NCAA Event. (Ben Simmons led LSU in factors, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, however by no means danced.)
Flagg? He might do it. All of it. Every part. He’s the odds-on favourite to win each Nationwide Participant of the 12 months award. He’s main Duke in factors (19.5), rebounds (7.7), assists (4.0) and blocks (1.3) per recreation, whereas barely rating behind teammate Maliq Brown in steals (1.5). He has the No. 4-ranked Blue Devils steaming towards a attainable nationwide championship run.
“While you take a look at a few of our particular guys,” says Duke coach Jon Scheyer, “Paolo (Banchero) was Paolo. Zion was Zion. Jayson (Tatum) is Jayson. I feel he’s confirmed — he’s Cooper. That to me is the marking of a fantastic participant. At this level, he’s up there with any of them, however clearly he’s bought an extended strategy to go.”
Although it hasn’t taken very lengthy to get right here. Flagg turned 18 in December. He ought to be a senior in highschool. As an alternative he’s one among one in school basketball. His solely competitors for NPOY is 22-year-old Johni Broome from Auburn. Flagg’s multimillion-dollar sponsorship offers with New Steadiness, Gatorade and Fanatics dwarf the NIL contracts of different school stars. His fellow teammates, soon-to-be lottery picks Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach, don’t have something approaching his identify recognition. Maluach isn’t embarrassed to say that he’s repeatedly requested by fellow Duke college students to take photos — of them with Flagg.
It’s all sufficient to make you surprise: What’s it like being Cooper Flagg?
“It’s going actually quick,” Flagg says later. “Ever since freshman 12 months (of highschool), every year from then on has simply gone faster and faster.
“This season, all the pieces has been even …”
He snaps his fingers, “quicker. …
“It’s loopy, in case you cease to consider it.”
At 6:02 p.m. on a Tuesday, three hours earlier than a matchup with Miami, early arriving followers trickled into Duke’s on-campus crew retailer throughout from Cameron Indoor. There, they had been met with some unlucky information, relayed by way of a makeshift paper signal behind the shop: COOPER FLAGG JERSEYS ONLINE ONLY.
The shop supervisor had a proof: a rattling stampede a couple of days earlier. Flagg put 42 factors — an ACC single-game freshman file — on visiting Notre Dame, sending followers out of Cameron, throughout the adjoining courtyard, and into the shop. There they stripped each obtainable Flagg jersey off each single rack. The hangers had been virtually nonetheless spinning.
The supervisor might solely shake his head. He stated they’d be restocked for the subsequent house recreation. One other 10,000 Flagg jerseys are on rush order. “Ten thousand?” a passerby spat again. “Certainly that’s a joke.”
“Possibly,” the supervisor replied.
Two hours later and 70 miles west of campus, Ralph, Hunter and Dan had been plotting their subsequent transfer. One night time, two video games, two brothers. Cut up time. Ace Flagg — Cooper’s twin, who didn’t skip a grade — is spending his senior 12 months of highschool at Greensboro Day Faculty earlier than heading to the College of Maine on a basketball scholarship. A decade or so in the past, Ralph and Kelly dreamed of each boys incomes scholarships to Maine, the place Kelly performed within the late Nineties. That’s not how issues performed out. As an alternative, Kelly is in Durham watching pregame warmups at Duke, whereas Ralph, Hunter, and Dan are crammed into the fourth row of a crummy set of plastic bleachers, snacking on stale popcorn in a nondescript highschool fitness center.
In an alternate universe, Cooper can be enjoying out his last highschool season proper alongside Ace, scoring God is aware of what number of factors in settings like these.
Ralph can solely snicker on the concept. “He’d be so tired of it.”
The trio waited so long as they might earlier than slicing out early within the fourth quarter and racing to Durham. The drive was principally a household portrait of latest years. The Flaggs bought their longtime house in Maine within the fall of 2023 to maneuver to Florida, the place Cooper and Ace attended powerhouse Montverde Academy. After Cooper reclassified and enrolled at Duke, Ace transferred to Greensboro Day and their dad and mom rented a house in Greensboro — which was then furnished as a part of one Cooper’s NIL offers.
Of all of the strain the Duke freshman carries, maybe the toughest to weigh is that of setting the course for a household following his lead.
The Flaggs’ lease in Greensboro ends June 1, a couple of weeks earlier than the NBA Draft. They’ll go wherever the sport takes them after that.
“It’s kind of a hurry-up-and-wait sort of factor,” Kelly says.
However about that home. Regardless of being so near his dad and mom — nearer than every other participant on Duke’s roster, in reality — Cooper hardly ever goes “house.” Throughout fall break, when most of his teammates scattered to spend time with household, Cooper opted to remain on campus. He advised Kelly that Scheyer was internet hosting a Halloween barbecue for the gamers who caught round Durham.
“Oh, actually?” Kelly responded. “Who else continues to be on campus?”
Solely two others, Cooper answered: Khaman Maluach and Tyrese Proctor.
Wait a second, Kelly thought. “So that you … the child from Africa … and the child from Australia?”
Precisely.
“My mother coronary heart was a bit bit bruised about (Cooper not coming house),” Kelly stated, “however then I used to be additionally tremendous comfortable and pleased with the truth that he loves it right here, and he’s having the most effective time being a school child. I feel, as a result of it’s a brief alternative, he’s attempting to get probably the most out of it.”
It’s an extended view of a brief alternative, one which hints at a bigger query: Simply how genuine is Cooper’s school expertise?
On one hand, he takes courses. 4 of ’em — an 8:30 a.m. writing course, a well being & diet seminar, sports activities enterprise, and musical historical past course on the origins of hip-hop. On the opposite, when it’s time for group tasks, he doesn’t give out his private cellphone quantity. As an alternative, he has a second cellphone for college/NIL functions.
On one hand, in Durham, he can attend a 4:45 displaying of “Mufasa: The Lion King” with Maluach and fellow freshmen Darren Harris and Patrick Ngongba, sporting black Ugg slippers with a navy blanket draped over his head. However, he’s been acknowledged in airports since he was 16, signed 1000’s of autographs and is aware of when fellow college students are angling their telephones to snap secret photographs of him. Whereas Flagg purchased snacks earlier than that film, a middle-aged moviegoer walked away giddily by means of the foyer, voice-texting, “I simply noticed Cooper Flagg …”
However maybe most telling — of his youth, and his dominance — is what Flagg does between the white strains.
He’ll repeatedly spin previous two defenders and rating off-balance, along with his off hand, the sort of contact reserved for the NBA’s best finishers. Then he winks at Scheyer as he jogs again down the court docket. In a win at Wake Forest, Flagg hit graduate ahead Mason Gillis for a late-game 3 as Duke assistant coach Jai Lucas lined his head on the sideline, dismayed by Duke’s offensive circulation. On the subsequent timeout, Flagg made a beeline for Lucas within the huddle. “Jai, don’t have a panic assault! We’ve bought you. Don’t fear.”
“And he actually does have you ever,” Scheyer says.
To Gillis, the crew’s 24-year-old elder statesman, moments like that emphasize the fact followers typically neglect about Cooper.
“He doesn’t know s—. He’s 17 years previous,” Gillis says. “That’s what makes him him, although. He ought to be jovial. He ought to be outgoing and have enjoyable in all the pieces he does, as a result of so many individuals are going to place strain on him, stress him out, say it’s good to be doing this. He must by no means lose his 17-year-old self, as a result of his 17-year-old self loves the sport.”
That doesn’t imply Flagg has carte blanche. The alternative, truly. Throughout the recruiting course of, Kelly and Ralph made one factor clear to Scheyer above all else: no particular remedy. So when Flagg was noticeably passive early in a recreation in opposition to NC State, Scheyer let it rip in one among Duke’s first timeouts. “Instructed him he’s being delicate,” Scheyer says. “I used some completely different language, some completely different phrases.” Leaving the huddle, Scheyer seemed up and occurred to make eye contact with Kelly — who was standing a couple of rows behind her son, nodding in settlement with Scheyer’s evaluation.
Flagg subsequently scored 23 of his game-high 28 factors within the second half — erasing a 13-point deficit, Duke’s second-largest this season.
Later, after media members filtered out of the postgame locker room, you might’ve discovered Cooper towel-fighting his teammates like 12-year-olds at sleepaway camp.
“It’s your final likelihood to be a child. Although school sports activities now has taken on knowledgeable sports activities sort of really feel — with the NIL and guys getting paid — it’s nonetheless your final likelihood to really be an adolescent,” says Duke assistant Chris Carrawell. “Go to class with folks your age. Events. You hang around, have a superb time. It looks like it’s nonetheless, earlier than you attain that skilled degree, probably the most pure. Nonetheless. And I feel that’s why you come.”
The opposite cause? To begin studying the belongings you’re advised you’ll perceive if you’re older. lose. lead. grin. bear it. After going a sterling 33-0 in his last season of highschool ball, Flagg started his school profession on the alternative finish of the spectrum: with failure.
Or, at the very least that’s how Duke’s early-season loss to Kentucky was digested by a lot of the basketball world. Cooper scored 26 factors and devoured 11 rebounds in his first marquee, primetime recreation. He additionally turned the ball over twice within the last minute, together with with 26 seconds left in a tie recreation. “Everybody was killing him,” Carrawell says. “His first huge recreation, all people watching, he had 26 (factors) and 11 (rebounds) — however the turnover, that’s all anyone talked about.”
Nonetheless: At 17, Cooper was the one Duke participant to talk to reporters after that recreation. Scheyer didn’t prod him to attend the information convention; Cooper understood it as one among his tasks.
“That’s a part of rising up,” Scheyer stated. “He’s actually exhausting on himself, and sadly, I feel so as to be nice, it’s important to be that method considerably.”
It stays one among two days since he bought to campus — the opposite being after Duke misplaced to Kansas in Las Vegas — that individuals round him say he wasn’t utterly himself.
Final weekend, after headlining a 16-game successful stretch spanning from late November by means of early February, Flagg and the Blue Devils stumbled, or slipped, at Clemson. All eyes had been on the Duke star and all they noticed was a wrestle — 4 factors scored over the sport’s first 33 minutes. Flagg seemed gassed, however in a flutter, pumped in 14 factors within the last six minutes of desperation time.
His crew had an opportunity to tie or take the lead late, however Flagg, enjoying by means of a cramping calf and an sickness, slipped on a moist spot on the ground and tumbled to a turnover. Duke misplaced and Flagg, with a bloody backside lip, stated afterward, merely, “No excuses. I’ve bought to have the ability to play by means of it.”
That is what makes Flagg the participant that he’s and the prospect that professional groups imagine him to be. And over the past month, his different on-court attributes — in the event that they weren’t already maxed out — have all caught up. His highlights have turn into the soundtrack to this season. ESPN interrupts different reside video games with no matter Flagg second is probably going viral.
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯💀🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️ @Cooper_Flagg pic.twitter.com/K0cqvzuWtY
— Duke Males’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) January 8, 2025
The full court docket steal-and-slam vs. Pittsburgh. The behind-the-back crossover vs. NC State. A December coup d’état in opposition to unanimous No. 1 Auburn. Blitzing rival North Carolina with 21 factors, eight rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocked photographs.
“Generational,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes known as him just lately. “I’ve coached in opposition to some nice gamers in my profession. He’d be one among them. Bought an inventory of Kevin Durant or Derrick Rose or … Kawhi Leonard … (Flagg) is on that degree.”
Such reward, and Flagg’s identify milling alongside mega-watt stars, has turn into commonplace. But everybody is aware of we’re nowhere near the crescendo of the Cooper Flagg hype prepare. That’s nonetheless coming. So, as each nationwide highlight concurrently turns towards this teenager, an unstated rule has emerged on Duke’s campus:
Let the younger man have his peace, and the little time he has left.
As a result of if it weren’t for what’s coming, he’d maintain onto this so long as he might.
“S—,” Cooper says, “I wish to come again subsequent 12 months.”
Cooper Flagg might turn into the third freshman to earn unanimous males’s Nationwide Participant of the 12 months honors. (Lance King / Getty Photographs)
It’s an early morning in Durham. Chilly and quiet. A couple of early risers scurry previous Krzyzewskiville, the matrix of student-occupied tents pitched within the expanse in entrance of Cameron. As you’d anticipate, regardless of Mike Krzyzewski’s 42-year tenure ending three years in the past, Duke basketball continues to be inextricably tied to varsity basketball’s all-time winningest coach. At 77, he’s nonetheless a hero to at present’s college students, partly as a result of in his latter years, Krzyzewski prolonged his teaching profession by entrusting this system to a collection of seismic freshmen.
He summoned motion heroes to Durham: Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor, Marvin Bagley III, RJ Barrett, Williamson, Banchero, so on. Right this moment, Krzyzewski occupies a sixth-floor workplace within the Schwartz-Butters Athletic Middle, a constructing conjoined with Cameron. If he seems out his window, he can see the newest Duke freshman — perhaps the most effective of the most effective — strolling alongside along with his shoulders hunched up, blocking a relentless headwind.
Flagg strolls previous the sleeping college students. He seems snug, like somebody who’s comfortable to be the place his ft are, even when he’s barely unpacked his luggage. At this level, Flagg has been in school longer than the time he has remaining at school. Equally, he’s been broadly well-known longer than he can keep in mind being regular. That’s some heavy air to breathe and Flagg does so in his personal method. He doesn’t perceive his broad attraction.
Proper now, he simply needs a breakfast sandwich.
Within the Cragg Household Lounge, an space that doubles as a meal area for the Blue Devils throughout the week, Chef Sam and Chef Vee, the crew cooks, scoot across the kitchen, rising with a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. They hand Flagg a paper plate and he settles in to speak, his first one-on-one interview because the season started.
Flagg will associate with such an train as a result of this system requested him to, however he isn’t about to crack open and let the yolk run out. Straight, big-picture questions draw half-swings that path off into rudderless, one or two sentence solutions. Then he heaves a giant shoulder shrug. Every is more durable to decipher than the final. Are these shoulders being pushed down or pushing all the pieces up?
Flagg brushes a tuft of hair off his brow.
Has he made any non-basketball associates?
“I’ve met a superb quantity of individuals.” Shrug.
Is that this how he imagined school basketball?
“I at all times wished to play in school on the highest degree and compete for a nationwide championship. That kind of factor is what I dreamed about.” Shrug.
Is there something folks ought to find out about you?
“Nope.” Shrug. “Not that I can consider.”
Requested to ruminate on this or take into consideration that, Flagg subscribes to a path of least help. His developmental years have included quite a few media coaching classes. He at the moment has a NASA-grade public relations machine behind him. There’s no want for him to be uncooked or susceptible or revealing or publicly proactive. Nobody round Flagg blinked when he deleted his X account three video games into this season, saying that he wished to keep away from the location’s “toxicity.” He doesn’t submit something for his 900,000-plus followers on Instagram as a result of, effectively, he doesn’t have to. Flagg is a public determine solely when he must be.
Possibly for this reason one of many few questions he expands on is that if he feels extra like a school participant or knowledgeable athlete.
“I nonetheless really feel like a child,” Flagg says. “That is the one method I’ve ever identified school. That’s how I see it. I actually wouldn’t know the way youngsters felt earlier than, and if this feels completely different, if this feels extra like being knowledgeable. I imply, it’s the identical factor for youths in highschool, too, getting paid some huge cash. I don’t know. I really feel fairly regular.”
Every part else is something however. Flagg’s face will seem in each attainable business CBS produces to pump and prime the NCAA Event. New Steadiness is getting ready a marketing campaign that can run from the center of February by means of the NCAA Event. He’s already appeared on billboards in Atlanta and Dallas, been splashed on the partitions of Raleigh-Durham Worldwide Airport. Extra are coming. As Naveen Lokesh, the New Steadiness Head of Basketball International Sports activities Advertising, places it, Flagg has “an genuine shared story” that appeals throughout the panorama.
Once more, he shrugs.
Flagg isn’t the primary one with a lot thrust upon him. If something, he’s merely the newest, particularly at Duke. However all who see this specific participant perceive his place in all of this — at Duke, in school basketball, in historical past — and acknowledge that he’s completely different.
“I simply advised him, earlier than this 12 months began, that everybody is aware of he’s the most effective participant, (and) only for him to hold that and embrace that each single day,” says Banchero, 22, the final Duke freshman chosen No. 1 within the draft. “That’s one of many huge issues that I do know Coach Okay undoubtedly seemed for, but additionally Coach Scheyer. They need their finest gamers to be the leaders. (Flagg) has been doing that.”
Discuss to anybody round Flagg they usually’ll let you know that he’s nonetheless toying across the edges of what he can do on the court docket. He’s examined his management, deferred to teammates at instances to maintain the locker room intact, and brought over at different instances, inhaling all of the oxygen and reminding everybody that this one 12 months sojourn has a singular objective that has nothing to do with New Steadiness or viral moments or shaking Adam Silver’s hand. “He’s actually right here to win a nationwide championship,” Kelly says. “That’s all he’s fascinated about.”
Which is why all of this might find yourself being one thing we haven’t seen. To place it in Duke parlance, if Flagg continues on his present highway, and all of the dominoes fall so as — from the wins to the awards to the potential postseason legacy — he might principally ship Christian Laettner’s school profession within the span of 9 months.
Sacrilegious? Positive.
But it surely’s beginning to really feel awfully shortsighted to doubt such issues. It’s price contemplating that no one-and-done Duke freshman has ever had his jersey retired. That sort of honor would require one thing nobody has seen earlier than. And which may simply be attainable.
Flagg, from the place he’s sitting, wouldn’t dare assume that far forward or think about such issues. That’s all too huge and life has already gone too quick. Ending breakfast, he walks over to the far finish of the lounge and thanks Chef Sam and Chef Vee. He bends over to present every a hug.
Then, saying a fast goodbye, Cooper Flagg dips out the door. He has to get throughout campus for sophistication. He’s forward of schedule, however time is tight.
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; photographs: Lance King, Jared C. Tilton / Getty Photographs)