The headline on Brian Windhorst’s latest column for ESPN reads: “Why Cooper Flagg’s ascension is starting to feel inevitable.”
In it, Windhorst argues that the NBA media ecosystem has been a little slow in recognizing Flagg’s ascension, stopping just short of declaring the second-year stud ready to “take the NBA by storm.”
That he penned a column to that effect is notable, as Windy’s time is spent to a greater and greater degree behind a microphone or in front of a camera these days. He simply doesn’t
write as many columns now, so Monday’s look is evidence that Windhorst thinks Flagg’s development and potential in year two is a particularly important story, league-wide.
It makes sense. A lot of the big-name star power in the NBA has been shipped out east. The Mavericks as a franchise, remain, shovel in hand, digging their way out of a mountain of their own make, and are not particularly attractive to a national television audience as currently constructed. All this leads to a downward pressure on Flagg’s media attention.
But Windy (and others, to be fair) stays beating the Cooper Flagg drum this preseason.
On Sept. 25, it was a segment on ESPN’s NBA Today, where Windy issued it glowingly and effusively:
“I feel like there’s not enough hype around Cooper Flagg,” he said. “I know it’s hard to say because he was tracked at Duke very closely, but because Victor Wembanyama took that giant step forward last year, and really took the league by the throat, and because there was so much attention to the tanking teams going for the 2026 Draft, and the Mavericks themselves became one of the tanking teams at the end, I don’t think people realized how breathtaking Cooper Flagg’s performance was last season. He absolutely reminded me, on an almost nightly basis, of LeBron as a rookie. All the way back to the fact that LeBron was forced to play point guard as a rookie, and that kind of took him out of his game a little bit like it did with Cooper last year. The ability for someone of his size to play multi positions, to grab a rebound and then to go down and start the offense, to guard up and down the lineup, I mean, and really, his shot is way better than I thought it’d be. I think it’s going to keep developing, and I couldn’t be higher on Cooper Flagg. I really believe that he’s going to enter the top-10 of the best players in the league sooner rather than later, and that his trajectory is really right there alongside Victor Wembanyama’s in terms of the future of the NBA.”
The direct parallels with James, whom Windhorst built the early part of his career reporting on, and his rookie year, are startling. To think that Mavs fans could be watching the next LeBron in his ascendency is a beautiful thought to think. Just don’t let those thoughts wander into morbid reflection about how ownership might screw this one up.
Then, on the team’s trip to Macau, China, Windy echoed his own sentiments, and if it’s even possible, amplified them in an interview with DLLS.
“I am extraordinarily bullish on his future and I am really excited about his present,” Windy said. “Because of the dynamics of the league, because LeBron is in Philadelphia, and Giannis is in Miami and the Knicks are the champions, and the Celtics are the Celtics, and Wembanyama’s Wembanyama, and Luka is now separate from LeBron, the Mavericks are not on national TV that much. It’s a good and a bad thing. Number one, it means Cooper is not getting the attention he deserves. … Grab onto Cooper. Get in early. Be there, because the league is overlooking him a little bit right now. Again, it’s not like they’re looking at him and going, ‘Ehh, he’s not that good.’ There is a set of circumstances that is depressing him a little bit. Mistake. And look, at ESPN, we’re going to put LeBron and Luka on, you know? We’re going to put Giannis and we’re going to put Victor on. We’re going to put Durant on. We’re going to put Ant Edwards on, but I’m telling you, if Cooper was a stock, I would buy it all. That’s how I feel about him.”
Windhorst isn’t the only one who’s comparing Flagg to James at this early juncture in his career. Flagg’s teammate Kyrie Irving did the same in some of his postgame comments after the Mavs’ second preseason game in Macao.
“I give my respect to KD and Bron and they are on their own separate categories and trajectories and careers but I would say this, I think Coop falls in line in terms of having that competitive nature at a very young age,” Irving said. “He’s displaying in front of you guys what’s capable of and he’s only going to continue to get better.”
It’s moments like these when I love being associated with this Little Fan Site That Could, because Windy, we outchea. We been here. We’ve been banging on the Cooper Flagg drum since jump. We made room for you, and we are here to declare that there is still room on the train for all of the lapsed Mavericks fans who had to take some time away from the team after the injustices suffered under the previous administration.
Glory awaits. The team is the laundry, not the financiers behind the building the team plays in. It’s become clear before his 20th birthday that Flagg is not only generational, but an all-time great in the making.
With a week to go before the Mavs’ first game of Flagg’s second year, it’s getting hard to contain the excitement surrounding the meteoric rise that this young man is about to embark on.
