Cooper Flagg has been in the NBA for exactly one season, and he’s already talking like a guy who wants to retire in one jersey. The kind of career Dirk Nowitzki had in Dallas? That’s the dream, Flagg said this week on the ‘Almost Athletes with Dude Perfect’ show. But here’s the thing he admitted right alongside it: he might not get to make that call.
Flagg was asked about the idea of spending his entire career with the Mavericks, the team that drafted him with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. And he didn’t dodge it.
“To be that loved by a city, to have that much love and support from one place, I don’t think you can dream for anything else,” Flagg said. “That’s the ultimate goal, but like we were just talking about, it’s a business at the end of the day and it’s not going to be my decision.”
He isn’t wrong. The NBA has a history of players wanting to stay and teams deciding otherwise — or players changing their minds when the money, the winning or the weather calls. But Flagg’s loyalty to Dallas feels a little different right now, mostly because the Mavericks just went through the trauma of moving Luka Doncic. The fanbase is raw. The franchise is trying to convince everyone they know what they’re doing.
A Rookie Year That Backs Up the Hype
Flagg just finished a rookie season that made the Rookie of the Year race feel less like a race and more like a coronation. He edged out his former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel for the award after playing 70 games, averaging a little over 33 minutes a night.
The numbers: 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He shot 46.8 percent from the field, 29.5 percent from three and 82.7 percent from the free-throw line. Not an elite shooter yet, but the volume and the all-around production were exactly what you’d want from a No. 1 pick who’s supposed to be a franchise cornerstone.
Flagg cited Nowitzki specifically as the model for what he wants in Dallas. And it makes sense. Nowitzki spent 21 seasons with the Mavericks, won a title, became the face of the franchise and never had to deal with being traded away in a deal that made the entire league gasp. That’s the kind of stability Flagg is talking about.
But the catch — and Flagg was honest about this — is that it’s not entirely his call. The Mavericks are staring down a potential rebuild after the Doncic trade left a hole in the roster and in the trust of the fanbase. If things go sideways, the front office might decide to move Flagg, or he might decide the situation isn’t worth sticking around for. That’s the part he can’t control.
For now, he’s saying the right things. And for a fanbase still nursing a pretty serious wound, hearing a young star say he wants to be the next Dirk instead of the next Luka? That’s probably worth something.
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