If you learned just now that the top high school basketball prospect in the United States is a big huge lanky white fella from Maine named Cooper Flagg, you would probably sit back in your chair, close your eyes, and imagine his goofy ass decked out in a Duke Blue Devils jersey, glowering over some unfortunate dunk victim like Ball is Life Paul Atreides. Well, that vision has come true; Flagg announced on Monday morning, on the cover of SLAM, that he'll be spending his gap year in college ball at goddamned Duke.
Every school in the country wanted a piece of Flagg, as he boasts one of the most impressive bodies of work high school basketball has ever seen. Three serious contenders emerged over the summer: the G-League Ignite, UConn (local angle, plus UConn center Donovan Clingan's mom played college ball at Maine with Flagg's mom, and they posted a cute photo together), and Duke. The Ignite would have been the most interesting choice, as the team has cemented itself as an increasingly reliable finishing factory for top prospects ever since Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga both signed ahead of the 2021 draft. In the past three NBA drafts, 10 Ignite prospects have been selected, including five in the first round and four in the lottery. But a prospect of Flagg's stature hasn't yet eschewed college ball for a year of lower-tier professional experience, and it would have represented a significant shift if Flagg had made that choice.
Instead, he will add his name to the list of crazy-ass white boys to have played at Duke, alternately thrilling and revolting audiences, with little room for the neutral. Flagg's game is a perfect fit for the Blue Devils, in both the spiritual and on-court sense. He's a ferocious competitor who will scream and taunt and all but slap the floor on defense, and he should thrive in a Jon Scheyer system that allows for a high degree of freedom and movement. Getting Flagg in this early (he reclassified from the class of 2025 and will join Duke in the fall of 2024) will allow Scheyer and Duke's recruiters more time to build a team around Flagg's odd, immense gifts.
It also gives the Duke-haters among us, of which I hope there are many, time to sharpen our animus. In a perverse way, I'm a big fan of this Flagg decision because it kills the ambiguity and sets him up for a tremendous villain arc. Imagine if Grayson Allen had swag, or if J.J. Redick was tall, or if Christian Laettner defended like Anthony Davis. Flagg picking Duke is an act of accelerationism. The basketball of it all will honestly be pretty tremendous (the rest of Duke's recruiting class is fantastic, and fittingly in-character, as it includes a guy named Kon Knueppel) and it will only make their inevitable loss to Kansas State in the Sweet Sixteen that much funnier.
Enjoy it for the months that you can, because now that one step of the prophecy has been fulfilled, the other is surely to follow. Picture in your mind the 2025 NBA draft lottery. Ping pong balls boink off each other, swirled by the fates. Owners, children, the odd actual NBA player all wriggle in their seats, knowing the fates of each of their 14 franchises hangs in the balance. Could they defy the odds? Could the ping pong balls bounce their way, sending them Cooper Flagg? Adam Silver walks to the podium, flashes a momentary glance at Wyc Grousbeck, and leans in to the microphone as he announces the unlikely winners of the lottery: the Boston Celtics.
