Cooper Flagg: the 17-year-old ‘cold-ass white boy’ breaking the basketball discourse

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Cooper Flagg leads Duke in scoring and rebounding as the No 5-ranked Blue Devils have zoomed to a 9-2 season start.Photograph: Lance King/Getty Images

Five months ago USA Basketball convened an inter-squad scrimmage in Las Vegas before the Paris Olympics, and the standout player was a gawky teenager from Maine.

On that heady July day, Cooper Flagg showed flashes of his sky-high potential, out-jumping Bam Adebayo for a put-back layup, spinning off Jrue Holiday for a baseline jumper and burying a corner three over an outstretched Anthony Davis to key a near upset of Team USA’s “Monstars.” One NBA head coach in attendance called Flagg the 13th-best player in the gym (behind Indiana Pacers leading man Tyrese Halliburton and Boston Celtics point guard Derrick White, ostensibly), while Kevin Durant endorsed Flagg’s on court sangfroid as “a good sign.” As the clips of Flagg’s workout circulated online, hoops fans couldn’t help speculating about the further damage the 6ft 9in teen terror might do in college basketball.

Flagg, who turns 18 on Saturday, has been as compelling on the court in his first year at Duke, pacing the team in scoring and rebounding as the No 5-ranked Blue Devils zoomed to a 9-2 season start. He ranks among the most productive freshmen in the country even as he continues to work on finishing at the rim and knocking down jumpers. More than stats, it’s the freshman forward’s high intensity, hustle and efficacy on defensive that standout most right now. (“We ain’t had no bad-ass, cold-ass white boy like this in a long time,” former teen phenom Kevin Garnett said on his podcast. “I can see kids wanting to be like that and play like that.”) In past years those traits would’ve doomed Flagg to college hoops infamy as the latest white supervillain to don a Blue Devils jersey. But in the dawning era of anti-wokeness, Flagg is poised to become an even more daunting figure in sports lore: the next great white hope, Caitlin Clark 2.0.

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cooper-flagg-17-old-cold-114506826.html

Author : The Guardian

Publish date : 2024-12-19 11:45:00

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