Flagg emulates Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar and more as he makes NBA history

On May 12, it will be a year since the 2025 draft lottery - an event so extraordinary that NBA rumor mills elevated it to near‑conspiracy status. The Dallas Mavericks, a franchise in full institutional and emotional collapse after the organizational self‑sabotage that was the Luka Dončić trade, jumped eleven spots and landed the No. 1 pick for the first time in team history. And it happened in the perfect year: the year the next generational talent, Cooper Flagg, was within reach. Dallas, no longer Dončić’s team and desperately in need of a break like this, had only a 1.8% chance of winning that pick.

Moments like that - big or small - change NBA history. And they certainly began to alter the course of the Mavericks, even as Dončić’s shadow still stretches endlessly across the franchise. Jason Kidd has spent the last two days refuting the latest public outburst from Mark Cuban, the scorned former majority owner, who claims Kidd was fully aware of what was being plotted regarding Dončić in the office of the since-fired Nico Harrison. Dallas’s former public enemy No. 1 has been out of a job for months, and the vision he bragged about when Flagg fell into their lap never materialized because it never really existed. The No. 1 pick was the cosmic accident that rewired the timeline of a franchise that - oh, the irony - traded Dončić to win right now: Kyrie Irving still hasn’t returned from his knee injury and is about to post a blank season, and Anthony Davis was quietly shipped to the Wizards in a deal with zero fanfare.

Fabulous Flagg

But Flagg is here - the only real reason Dallas has had to smile in the last 14 months. A kid who reclassified up a year, who (born December 21, right on the edge of the calendar) could easily be playing March Madness right now. Instead, he just became, at 19 years and 103 days, the youngest player in NBA history to record a 50‑point game. He did it against the Orlando Magic (127-138) on what was otherwise another night with nothing else positive to cling to for a franchise already fixated on the next draft and on finding players who actually fit their new star - his style, his competitive demands, and, just as important, his age and developmental arc. Right now, the Mavs have almost none of that on a roster built (poorly) for the ultra‑short term.

Flagg finished with 51 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and only one turnover, shooting 19‑for‑30 from the field, 6‑for‑9 from three, and 7‑for‑7 at the line. He played more than 34 minutes on a night when his team trailed wire‑to‑wire and extended its home losing streak to 14 - an infamous record for the once‑proud American Airlines Center, which had never seen anything like it in its 25‑year history. The last time Dallas opened a season with 19 straight home losses, back in 1993-94, they were still playing in the now‑demolished Reunion Arena.

Flagg got a little help reaching 51: with Kidd ejected (along with Naji Marshall) for arguing calls in the fourth quarter, Frank Vogel subbed Flagg out with 45 points, just over three and a half minutes left, and the Magic up 17. It looked like his night was done - his previous rookie high was 49. But less than 30 seconds later, he was back on the floor, and he crossed 50. The youngest ever to do it, and only the ninth rookie to hit that mark. A list from another era: Wilt Chamberlain, Brent Barry, Earl Monroe, Elvin Hayes, Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar, Allen Iverson, and the one outlier - Brandon Jennings.

Rookie of the Year? A tough ask

Flagg offers the promise of a bright future - as long as the Mavs do even the bare minimum of sensible team‑building. They’re now 24-53 and waiting on another lottery. The Magic, who won mostly by showing up, move to 41-36 in what has also been a disappointing year: a team that should’ve been competing for a top‑three seed in the East is instead scrambling to escape the play‑in, and no one - maybe not even inside the locker room - really believes they have the tools to matter in the playoffs.

But the story of the night began and ended with Flagg, a monumental talent who becomes something nearly unguardable when the outside shot falls: 6‑for‑9 from deep this time, the big difference compared to the many excellent games he has already produced. And he has until almost next Christmas to push that scoring record even higher - before he turns 20.

This performance may have come too late - or may simply not be enough - in a Rookie of the Year race that has become an uphill climb for Flagg. He began the season as the overwhelming favorite, but his former Duke teammate, shooting guard Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets, the No. 4 pick, appears to have overtaken him for good.

Tim Bontemps of ESPN just published the latest wave of media polling - 100 journalists - and those results rarely miss. Knueppel leads comfortably: he has nearly all the first‑place votes, 80‑20, and the overall tally is 458‑338. VJ Edgecombe (Sixers) is a distant third at 98. The debate will continue, and Flagg absolutely has a case: he’s averaging more than 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists - better in all three categories than Knueppel, who sits at 18.8, 5.4, and 3.4. But Knueppel leads the entire NBA in total threes made (breaking the rookie record) and is shooting 43% from deep - efficiency we haven’t seen from a rookie since Stephen Curry at this kind of volume (3.4 makes on 8 attempts per night). Knueppel has also played 13 more games and, crucially - something often overlooked in ROY voting - his Hornets have been far more relevant, putting together a terrific second half that has secured a play‑in spot and left the door open for a jump to No. 6 and a direct playoff berth.

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