On the afternoon of May 12th, Cooper Flagg`s immediate family gathered in his hotel room in downtown Chicago. Present were his twin brother Ace, his father Ralph, and his mother Kelly. They were getting ready for the 2025 NBA draft lottery, scheduled for that evening.
Before heading out, the family of the Duke superstar freshman, and the presumed first overall pick in Wednesday`s NBA draft, spent 30 minutes discussing his future.
They had held these conversations before, weighing all the likely landing spots and what each presented. However, this served as a final briefing before one of the most highly touted American prospects in years would finally know where he would likely begin his NBA career later that night.
The family had known for months that the Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz, and Charlotte Hornets had the highest chances of securing the top pick. Inside the room, they again reviewed the positives associated with each.
Washington was a short flight from Maine and North Carolina, where the family divided their time. Charlotte offered similar proximity and a built-in fanbase for Duke alumni. Utah was led by Jazz CEO Danny Ainge, who played for the 1980s Boston Celtics teams Cooper`s parents greatly admired and introduced their sons to early on.
They also considered a singular, unresolved negative. Like many top prospects, Flagg had never endured prolonged losing at any level, and regardless of his rookie-year performance, he was almost certainly about to. Although he consistently stated that he “just wanted to hoop” anywhere, those around him expressed concerns about how the ultra-competitive prospect would emotionally adapt to such a dynamic.
“It would be hard for me to imagine Cooper going through a season with a lot of losing,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer told ESPN.
Flagg`s father acknowledged this. “It was something we talked about,” he said.
Shortly after, the family walked to the convention center. Flagg`s representatives offered guidance: cameras would be focused on them throughout the night, especially as the lottery order was announced, and any reaction, positive or negative, would generate headlines. It was best, they advised Flagg and his family, to remain neutral.
Flagg sat in a front-row seat, next to his Duke teammate, Kon Knueppel. Ralph, Kelly, Ace, and Flagg`s longtime trainer Matt MacKenzie sat in the row directly behind Cooper. Facing the stage, they watched NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum rapidly announce the first 10 picks in just over 2 minutes. But even that brief period brought significant surprises.
Washington and Utah had fallen out of the top four, while the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs had leaped into it.
Sitting in their seats, the family attempted to maintain their composure while considering the new possibilities unfolding.
Flagg had imagined, even briefly, a potential pairing with 7-foot-5 Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs` top pick from the 2023 draft.
Then, Tatum announced the next pick: Charlotte. This meant Dallas, San Antonio, and the Philadelphia 76ers were in the top three. The odds of that specific outcome, according to ESPN Research, were just 1%.
Just 12 seconds later, Tatum announced that the 76ers would pick third and the Spurs second, confirming that the Mavericks, who started the night with a 1.8% chance of winning the lottery, had won.
The Mavericks had the fourth-lowest odds to win the lottery since 1985; they jumped 10 spots, the largest by any team since the NBA changed the draft lottery format in 2019.
In only a few minutes, the Flagg family`s entire perspective, what they had been outlining and planning for months, completely changed.
The announcement sent shockwaves across the NBA. A franchise, and a fanbase, still recovering from the devastating midseason trade of superstar Luka Doncic was now positioned to draft another generational talent in Flagg.
From their seats, Flagg`s family was just as stunned.
“Dallas wasn`t even on our bingo card,” his father, Ralph, said.
Text messages poured in. Were they happy? Sad? Why weren`t they reacting? Did they realize what had just happened? Their minds raced.
Instead of the pressure of being one of the best players on a losing team, he would be on one that, just a year ago, reached the NBA Finals. He would be, by any measure, the player to heal the wounds left by the departure of Doncic, who by age 25 had earned five All-Star selections and been named first-team All-NBA five times.
Flagg would immediately face a different pressure, one few No. 1 picks have experienced: to help a pair of All-Stars, in point guard Kyrie Irving and forward Anthony Davis, win in the NBA – and quickly.
“We never even considered that the impossible could happen on May 12,” one Mavericks team source said. “I`m not sure there has ever been a more abrupt reversal of fortune.”
Jon Scheyer, who coached Flagg for one season at Duke, watched the lottery from his hotel in Florida.
“To me, it`s a dream spot,” Scheyer said of the Mavericks. “I really feel that way.”
And as Flagg and his family walked out of the convention center that night, they began to feel the same.
Two Duke players were already on the roster, Irving and center Dereck Lively II, a first-round pick in the 2023 draft. Scheyer soon told Flagg that center Khaman Maluach and Lively were two of the best people he had coached. Flagg had played alongside Maluach during his freshman season with Duke; now he`d likely play alongside Lively during his first NBA season in Dallas. “Enjoy that!” Scheyer told him.
Flagg could learn from players who had won championships, they thought, such as Irving, Davis, and, they hoped, retired Dallas legend Dirk Nowitzki.
“He`s not going to go into Dallas thinking he`s got all the answers,” Scheyer said. “He`s going to learn from Kyrie, he`s going to learn from [Davis]. He`s going to learn from Derek Lively and Jason Kidd and his staff. He`s coming in to learn, and I think that`s a special part about him.”
Like so many, the Flagg family had monitored the extensive backlash from Mavericks fans after Doncic was traded abruptly to the Los Angeles Lakers last season. The Flaggs saw the jersey burnings, the mock funerals, the protests.
To them, though, it represented strength – an admirable bond with the organization, even if it had been badly strained.
“They are a very passionate fan base,” Ralph said, “and I think from what we understand and what we`ve seen on social media, they`re ready to fully embrace Cooper.”
“Dallas has been lucky for many years,” Scheyer said. “They`ve been able to watch Dirk, Luka – so many winning teams. Now, you`ve got a guy in Cooper, who I think will carry that tradition forward.”
His impact on the organization was felt immediately, first on the team`s financial bottom line.
“We surprisingly renewed 75-80% of our season tickets,” one Mavericks team source said. “But we had a lot of work to do in earning back the confidence and fandom of a not insignificant segment of our fan base.”
“We sold $8 million in new season tickets in the three days after the lottery.”
After the backlash from the Doncic trade, one company that was considering a sponsorship partnership with the Mavericks paused, the source said. Then, after seeing the lottery results and the positive fan reaction, that same company agreed on a new sponsorship deal with the team.
“We have done two additional new sponsor deals, one the second largest in our history, since the luck of the lottery,” the Mavericks source said.
After the lottery, Flagg traveled across the country, working out with MacKenzie at a gym in Westlake Village, near Los Angeles. Flagg also traveled to North Carolina to see his brother graduate from high school and then north to Maine to see his former classmates graduate.
The Flagg family has already booked an Airbnb in Las Vegas to watch him during summer league. And while draft parties are being organized in Flagg`s hometown of Newport, Maine, the family has enjoyed a brief respite from the noise and television cameras in Westlake Village, where Flagg continued to work out before heading back to New York for the draft.
Recently, the family visited a store in Los Angeles for Flagg to be fitted for a suit on draft night. As they watched specialists work with Flagg, the gravity of the moment – and what was coming next, the start of his NBA journey – settled in for those around him. They all looked at each other and couldn`t believe how fast everything had flown by.
“He`s in a good place mentally,” MacKenzie said. “He`s in a good place physically, and I think that he`s ready for this next chapter of his career.”
