I don't normally watch the NBA regular season and I don't really have a favorite team. If I was going to choose one it wouldn't be the Dallas Mavericks but at the moment they have got a truly amazing player on their team that is breaking records and becoming the next big thing.
His name is Cooper Flagg and he is a mere 19 years old
It was just a few days ago when Flagg broke the history books by becoming the youngest player EVER to have scored 50 points or more in the NBA. He accomplished it with several minutes left to go in a game that the Dallas Mavericks lost by more than 10 points but it was a really incredible display of what this kid is capable of. He is a menace in the paint, he can cross you out on a drive and he can nail 3's in a nothing-but-net sort of fashion that makes you believe that he is extremely confident and competent from distance as well.
I've only watched the highlights of his games so I can't say if he is a liability on defense or not but on offense he seems to demand attention and drain almost anything that he is charged with. A few days later they played the Lakers at home, one that included LeBron James, and Cooper managed to pull down 45 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists. He is getting the ball an awful lot though and many of his points came from the free throw line where he went 15-17. The other teams are going to have to learn to not foul this dude because it appears as though he is going to make 'em from there as well.
The Mavs might not be a great team because they narrowly won this game 134 - 128. With such high scores I have to wonder if anyone is playing defense anymore. I seem to remember a day that it was quite rare for a game to go to 120 point per team unless it went to overtime, now it seems like it is every single game.
I guess I wasn't paying attention well enough because this guy's existence completely passed me by in college. I rarely watch college ball for the same reason I rarely watch NBA ball, there's too many games and I don't really have a home team.
Cooper was dominant in his freshman appearance at Duke and then announced he was going pro after just one year at school. He was drafted 1st in the 1st round by the Dallas Mavericks and I suppose we are already seeing that this was probably a good choice on their part if they can keep him uninjured.
He's already broken Kobe Bryant's record for most games with 20 points or more as a teenager and he already became the youngest person to score more than 50 in a single game ever. While getting that record he bypassed LeBron James who scored 56 points as a teenager.
He isn't an arrogant player or a flopper either, although I suppose we could see that start to arise in his game later. At the moment he has the workings of one of the greats and one of the only things preventing the Mavs from being an unstoppable team appears to be the lack of depth in their roster. They are currently 25-53 and well, losing 2/3 of your games isn't getting the team anywhere, no matter how many points Flagg manages to pull down.
Imagine if he was on a team where he wasn't the only apparent weapon on the bench?
I see good things in his future but for now, seeing him play is probably worth the price of admission on its own at the moment.