It’s not that they look very much alike. Or come from the same continent or culture. Or were raised in the same basketball tradition. Or play the same position. Or arrived to the league with similar accomplishments.
Cooper Flagg of the Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers are two very different types of players, who don’t even share backgrounds. One is just starting his peak, the other is just getting started.
But they have one thing that will tie them together forever, link them without their consent and force them to relate to each other until one retires. Flagg will forever be Doncic’s replacement, the new franchise star meant to take over and create his own era in Dallas Mavericks history and narrative.
But as opposed to the planned, smooth and respectful passing of the torch from Mavs legend Dirk Nowitzki to Luka Doncic in 2019, this feels more like a breakup where one didn’t agree with the separation, terms have never been discussed and there’s children involved.
Despite all of this, Flagg and Doncic have a lot in common. Just teenagers when they entered the league, both started out beating records right away. Both came in with tremendous pressure, both the best of the best albeit in different places and leagues.
Handling the pressure by beating records and consistently playing at a high level in their rookie year is another thing they have in common. That’s a rare trait in athletes, reserved for future generational superstars.
Both being so used to pressure before even entering the best league in the world that it feels like home – pressure does – and both enjoying going up against the best.
Add intelligence. Both know when to take over a game, both have the vision and reads of a high IQ player and both know how to use their physical attributes to their advantage.
But the fact remains: one is just starting his peak, the other is just getting started.
The NBA, after all, is a league with room for the best only. It’s not about who’s the richest or most powerful, even the most beautiful. We want the best basketball players in the world hashing it out in front of our eyes. We want rivalries and close games.
We want the best basketball possible.
We are so lucky that we get to watch a generation even better than the last. A continued development of the game to more efficiency, more athleticism, higher IQ basketball and even more entertainment.
We can all appreciate a good ‘who’s better’ discussion. But between peers. Between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic. Between Flagg and VJ Edgecombe. Don’t compare a rookie who fell into Dallas’ lap with a guy who came into the league already highly decorated and had nothing to do with leaving.
If we need to compare a rookie and a superstar linked only by what happened to them rather than what they did or who they are, we miss the point.
We miss that the NBA is about getting the best basketball and enjoying it. In the end, that’s what we’re all hoping and rooting for. It would just be nice if our own team came out on top once in a while.
