We’re as excited about Cooper Flagg as anyone is. He’s having an insane year and he’s doing things that no one reasonably expected him to do this early. He was expected to be an elite defender but his offense
has developed far beyond what most people expected.
However, when it comes down to the arguments you’ll find in this article, we have to agree with Stephen Jackson and disagree with the Morris twins, Markieff and Marcus, who suggest that Flagg could be the best White America player of all time, suggesting he could pass Larry Bird.
Jackson couldn’t go there and neither can we. Flagg is having an incredible rookie season and he has the potential to be the best player in the league – but he’s not there yet and comparing him to Bird – or anyone, really – is a big ask.
For that matter, zoom out a little and look at the best White players in the world today. You can start with Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Chet Holmgren, Domantas Sabonis, Franz Wagner and, of course, Kon Knueppel.
You can make an argument that Flagg is better now than Holmgren, Sabonis, Wagner and Knueppel, but it gets harder with Doncic and Jokic.
Jokic is arguably the best player in the world and while Doncic is not nearly the defender Flagg is, only a fool would say he’s not a great player.
Does Flagg have the potential to be better than all of these guys?
Yes, he does.
And Bird?
Bird is a unique historical figure. Joe Dumars called him a basketball prodigy and that sums him up best. He had a preternatural talent that allowed him to do things that honestly defied belief. Watch some videos and you’ll see an extraordinary intelligence for the game and a keen understanding of how to psychologically destroy his opponents.
Flagg is already brilliant and has a chance at being an all-time great, but better than Bird? He’s not there and may never be, because Bird was a freak.
You don’t have to take our word for it. We’re pretty sure that if you asked his mom, after she talked about his immense potential and incredible accomplishments at the tender age of 19, that she’d agree. She played the game. She gave Cooper and his brothers the DVD of the ‘86 Celtics to watch on those long road trips from Newport, Maine, to AAU events across New England. She knows how great Bird was, how unbelievable his talent was and she wanted them to learn from him, to model their games on his, because Bird and that team played the purest basketball the world has ever seen.
That said, she probably understands that while her boy can’t do what Bird did, Bird never had Flagg’s raw physical talent and that Flagg has a chance to put his stamp on basketball just as the Hick from French Lick once did.
He won’t be the next Bird, but if Flagg works as hard as Bird did, he too has a chance to become an historical figure in the game, a chance to win NBA titles and MVP awards and a chance to define his own greatness.
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