SI:AM | The NBA’s Next Phenom Announces His Arrival

Cooper Flagg is just 17 but he put on a show against the world’s best.

Flagg is widely expected to be the first pick of the 2025 NBA draft. / Amanda Inscore/The News-Press USA Today

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I can’t believe the NBA’s next big prospect is from Maine.

In today’s SI:AM:

🚩 Cooper Flagg’s big game
🏈 The legit Super Bowl contenders
⚾ NL rookie roundup

Let the tanking begin

The U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team held its first pre-Paris scrimmages on Sunday and Monday, and the player everyone can’t stop talking about isn’t LeBron James or Stephen Curry. It’s a 17-year-old.

Cooper Flagg is the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft. He’ll be attending Duke in the fall, but first he got to test his skills against the best players in the world as part of the USA Basketball select team. And he more than lived up to the hype.

The select team is a collection of mostly young NBA players brought in to work out with the Olympic squad. This year’s team included All-Rookie selections Jaime Jaquez Jr., Brandon Miller, Brandin Podziemski and Amen Thompson, but also players like 32-year-old former NBA guard Langston Galloway and former Wisconsin star Nigel Hayes-Davis.

And then there’s Flagg. USA Basketball touted him as the first college player chosen to the select team since Doug McDermott and Marcus Smart in 2013, but that undersells how unusual Flagg’s inclusion was. McDermott had just completed his junior year at Creighton and finished second in the nation in scoring. He’d go on to win the national player of the year award the next year. Smart had been the Big 12 Player of the Year as a freshman. Flagg just graduated from high school.

But if you watched Flagg on Monday without knowing who he was there’s no way you would have been able to tell that he’s too young to buy a lottery ticket. He made a bunch of impressive plays, including a three over the outstretched arms of Anthony Davis and a turnaround jumper after working on Jrue Holiday in the post. Those two players have a combined 11 All-Defense selections.

17-year-old Duke commit Cooper Flagg is TORCHING Team USA 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6E7IblYhFA

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) July 8, 2024

He also soared to the rim for a putback over Bam Adebayo (five NBA All-Defensive Team selections).

Duke commit Cooper Flagg has taken over USA Basketball scrimmage: hits a three and then finishes a tough putback pic.twitter.com/SB3Y4fDpYt

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) July 8, 2024

“I was just competing and trying as hard as I can,” Flagg told reporters after the scrimmage. “Giving it 100%. I’m confident in my ability and skill. I’m confident in who I am and what I can do. It’s a surreal feeling being able to share the court [with the national team]. I’m blessed to have this opportunity to be here. I had no worries. I didn’t put any pressure on myself. I’m here for a reason. I know that.”

Flagg has been a hyped prospect for years. He comes from the small town of Newport, Maine, where he led Nokomis Regional High School to a 21–1 record and its first state championship as a freshman. He was also the first freshman to win the Gatorade Maine Boys Basketball Player of the Year. He then transferred to basketball factory Montverde Academy in Florida, where he played another two seasons and reclassified to graduate in three years and accelerate his path to the pros.

Flagg was already regarded as the unquestioned best player in the 2025 draft, but his performance against Team USA will only make that more of a foregone conclusion. Maybe only true basketball sickos were paying enough attention to a non-televised scrimmage to have Flagg making a lasting impression. But it’s difficult to imagine just how big a deal he’ll become once he starts playing on a massive stage at Duke. Get ready for the draft lottery to become one of the dominant story lines in the NBA this season, just as it did the year Victor Wembanyama entered the league.

Are the Lions ready to make another leap in 2024? / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Conor Orr has published his annual list of the teams that can actually win the Super Bowl this season.

• Nick Selbe’s NL rookie roundup leads with a look at hyped Nationals prospect James Wood.

• Gilberto Manzano doesn’t think that Dak Prescott’s foot injury should be anything to worry about.

• Manzano also broke down the Bengals’ offseason for our 32 teams in 32 days series.

• Dan Hurley has signed a new contract extension with UConn after turning down the Lakers.

• The Sixers are reportedly working on bringing back a classic uniform from the Allen Iverson days.

• ESPN’s Joe Tessitore is adding WWE to his list of announcing duties.

The top five…

… things I saw last night:

5. Zach Edey’s 14 points and 15 rebounds in his summer league debut.
4. Keyonte George’s bewildering summer league stat line.
3. Diamondbacks announcer Steve Berthiaume’s call of Paul Sewald’s third straight blown save.
2. Novak Djokovic’s salty interview after winning his match at Wimbledon.
1. Elly De La Cruz’s gutsy delayed steal.