LAS VEGAS — Cooper Flagg AT&T T-shirts!
The breathless announcement that they were available during Flagg’s NBA Summer League debut — his rite of passage to the pros, similar to recent prospects of his wattage, including Victor Wembanyama and Zion Williamson and Lonzo Ball — met the moment at an almost-sold-out Thomas & Mack Center. This building saw the vintage Runnin’ Rebels of Jerry Tarkanian; now it serves as the place where the Next Big Thing arrives.
Flagg is a big next.
There hasn’t been an American player with so much hype coming into the league in more than a decade, at least since Anthony Davis, now Flagg’s Dallas Mavericks teammate, went first to the then-New Orleans Hornets in the 2012 NBA Draft. Though the NBA incessantly hypes its incredible international growth and the number of countries that have sent players to the league, it needs someone like Flagg, born in Newport, Maine, to help carry the league as it transitions from the LeBron James/Steph Curry era.
It also needs Dallas — whose beyond controversial trade of Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers last February immolated the team’s relationship with most of its fan base — to become relevant again, as it was for almost all of the Dirk Nowitzki era.
The Mavericks held off the Lakers 87-85 on Thursday, not that anyone was paying much attention to the score. More than 17,500 fans came out on a balmy 107-degree day in the desert to see what all the fuss was about.
“I was excited,” Flagg said afterward. “Obviously, it was a new environment, a lot of new fans. So I was a little nervous, a little excited. But just happy to be here.”
The show brought the Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving and swingman P.J. Washington. Also in attendance were Jalen Williams, he of the freshly sealed $285 million contract extension from the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Ashton Jeanty, the Las Vegas Raiders’ rookie running back, among others.
ESPN, naturally, picked this game as a prime-time-on-the-East Coast kickoff for its summer league coverage. There wasn’t quite as much media coverage this year as there was for Wemby, as the international interest in him brought reporters from all over the globe. But Thomas & Mack was loud every time Flagg touched the ball, and especially when he and Bronny James took turns going one-on-one throughout the game.
“He’s 18,” said Mark Cuban, the Mavs’ former majority owner, who still has some scratch invested in the franchise. “My daughter just graduated from high school. She’s 18. She’s older than he is.”
It’s not that the NBA is hurting. Again, it will be starting a 10-year, $76 billion media rights deal next season, introducing streaming of regular-season and playoff games through its new partner, Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. Parity, achieved through multiple methods, is giving more teams actual hope that they can break through and make a championship run.
TV ratings for this year’s NBA Finals between Oklahoma City and the Indiana Pacers were down overall, but Game 7’s numbers proved the adage that a series that goes six or seven games tends to improve its viewing numbers.
Still, the league will always, always, need stars to draw eyeballs. It was that way when George Mikan played. It’s the same way eight decades later, and Flagg has all the trappings of a star. So, too, do multiple American players who should be at the top of the 2026 draft: Kansas commit Darryn Peterson, BYU commit AJ Dybantsa and Duke commit Cameron Boozer.
Like Flagg, they also have that indescribable but unmistakable “it” factor that compels people, and especially casual fans, to sit and watch on their tablets, their phones, whatever. That compels people to shell out somewhere between $2,500 and $3,000 for courtside seats for a summer league game, as people did Thursday.
The NBA got a similar injection of U.S. talent to begin the 1980s. It wasn’t just Magic Johnson and Larry Bird coming into the league off their famous duel in the 1979 NCAA title game. It was Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing and Karl Malone and John Stockton and Isiah Thomas and Clyde Drexler — and, of course, Michael Jordan. They all became pros within six years of one another. They are all in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and the league parlayed that huge influx of star power into the beginnings of a desperately needed renaissance.
Now, after getting the ultimate mulligan, the Mavericks can do the same. They no longer have to face a revolt from season ticket holders.
“I’m not going to say we didn’t get lucky,” Cuban said. “I was talking with (majority owner) Patrick Dumont. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is (that) fans want hope. It’s when they lose hope that organizations have problems. And whatever challenges we had prior to that, we (now) have hope. That changes everything.”
Sporting something that looked like the beginnings of a goatee, Flagg struggled with his shot Thursday, making just 5 of 21 from the floor, including 0 of 5 from deep.
“Maybe the worst game of my life,” he said.
He still impacted the game at key moments, though, blocking a drive by Lakers guard DJ Steward, then facilitating a trailing Ryan Nembhard for a 3 with 1:03 left to put Dallas up for good.
Flagg finished with 10 points and six rebounds in 31 minutes. Some of that was on him, but some of it, as Dallas’ summer league coach, Josh Broghamer, correctly noted, was Flagg’s teammates standing around watching him shoot.
A year ago, it was James who had to deal with all the attention generated by his first pro game, and he was a late, late second-round pick. However, the Lakers’ obvious machinations to make sure he was selected, and that he would play with his father, put all kinds of unfair and unrealistic expectations on a kid who played just a handful of games in college at USC after a frightening cardiac arrest episode that sidelined him for months.
Bronny James spent much of last season in the G League. He looked a lot more comfortable and confident Thursday, even though he, too, struggled shooting the ball. But this time, the spotlight wasn’t just his to bear.
“I mean, I watched him all in college, and he’s an amazing player,” James said of Flagg. “I have the utmost respect for him.”
Debut summer league games for majorly-hyped prospects are often wonky. Wembanyama’s debut here two years ago was less than memorable, though he cleaned things up two days later in a strong performance. Williamson’s debut, famously, was interrupted by an earthquake. The Mavs will now play the San Antonio Spurs, who took guard Dylan Harper second in the draft, right after Flagg, Saturday afternoon.
The next hype train, loaded up on viral moments, mock drafts and the muscle of one of the greatest marketing companies on earth, is leaving the station.
(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
