Give Cooper Flagg the Rookie of the Year award, you bums

Mere hours after a straw poll of NBA media members said Charlotte Hornets forward Kon Knueppel was firmly in the lead for the NBA Rookie of the Year award as the 2025-26 season winds down, Cooper Flagg made a closing argument that would put Perry Mason to shame.

Flagg poured in 38 of his game-high 51 points in the second half on Friday in a 138-127 loss to the Orlando Magic at American Airlines Center. It was jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring stuff. He had the same determined look on his face after starting the game with a pedestrian five points in the first quarter that he featured in that dazzling 49-point display on Jan. 29 against Knueppel and the Hornets. Flagg set a new record for single-game scoring by a teenager in an NBA that night, then broke it on Friday to hammer home

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Flagg made 6-of-9 from 3-point range, five of which came in the second half, against the Magic. He recorded three steals on the defensive end. But most of all, his performance proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a straw poll with six regular-season games still left on the schedule is an imperfect endeavor. He left no shadow of a doubt on Friday who should be named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year.

It has to be Flagg.

“I would hope it helps,” Flagg said when asked how his 51-point explosion should factor into his chances at winning the Rookie of the Year award. “But I’m not going to worry about that. I’m just going to worry about getting better every single night.”

At 19 years and 105 days, Flagg became the youngest player in NBA history to record a 50-point game and just the third rookie to do it since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976. Brandon Jennings scored 55 for the Milwaukee Bucks against the Golden State Warriors on Nov. 14, 2009, and Allen Iverson scored 50 for the Philadelphia 76ers on April 12, 1997 at the Cleveland Cavaliers. If his current season averages hold through the final five regular-season games of the year, Flagg will become just the fourth rookie to average more than 20 points, more than six rebounds and more than four assists per game, after Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Luka Dončic all did it in…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/cooper-flagg-rookie-award-bums-110500483.html

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Publish date : 2026-04-04 11:05:00

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