Kelly Flagg has a saying, one her son, Cooper, repeated to reporters in New York this week: “If you’re the best player in the gym, you need to find a new gym.” It’s what drove Cooper Flagg to transfer from a small high school in northern Maine to Montverde Academy, a central Florida basketball powerhouse. It’s what motivated him to reclassify, to graduate after three years and enroll at Duke. And it’s what had him here, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn poised to become the NBA’s youngest No. 1 draft pick since LeBron James.
On Wednesday, the Dallas Mavericks made that official, selecting Flagg first overall. There was no drama. Dallas has been zeroed in on Flagg since the team’s improbable lottery night win. In the days after, Flagg’s reps probed the Mavs to see if they might shop the pick. The response they got: Absolutely not. Whatever direction Dallas goes, Flagg would be part of it.
