Cooper Flagg’s duel with Bronny James in Mavs debut rocks Las Vegas Summer League
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Thousands rained boos upon the officials with five seconds remaining on the Thomas & Mack Center scoreboard in Oklahoma City’s 90-81 victory over the Brooklyn Nets.
The Summer League crowd, which had packed out the lower bowl and was in the process of filling up the nosebleed seats by late Thursday afternoon, was not there to watch Ben Saraf send Brooks Barnhizer to the free throw line.
No, they were waiting, with bated breath, for the start of an equally meaningless but infinitely more hyped exhibition.
Agents, celebrities, former college coaches and NBA alumni young and old were all on hand to witness the event.
Cooper Flagg, the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and the most celebrated American-born prospect since Zion Williamson burst onto the scene six years prior, made his debut for the Dallas Mavericks.
The team’s new 18-year-old savior faced the Lakers, the franchise that had traded for former Dallas superstar Luka Doncic in February.
Representing Los Angeles’ Summer League unit was Bronny James, the most discussed second-round pick in NBA history and the son of current Lakers megastar LeBron James.
The game itself was plenty exciting, with Dallas prevailing 87-85. The numbers were somewhat underwhelming, Flagg shooting 5 of 21 for 10 points and James going 2 for 8 and missing the potential game-winning 3-pointer in the dying seconds.
“I was excited, and a little nervous,” Flagg said, later adding, “It was high energy, and a lot of fans. Everybody showed up, and there was an intense energy. But that’s what you look forward to.”
But in a matchup where statistics were worth the same amount as which team won – nothing – the moments showed why Flagg is the heir apparent to the American throne that Steph Curry, James and Kevin Durant have sat upon for over a decade.
Each Flagg shot, each dribble, and pass created the same semi-second of anticipation that Curry has long generated in the Bay Area when he has the ball.
That shot, though, isn’t quite Curry-esque yet.
After whiffing on the first shot of the game, a 13-foot fallaway, Flagg was called for a foul and then bricked a 3-pointer.
Hardly an auspicious start.
James countered by drilling a stepback jumper over Flagg, and then burying a triple while Dallas’ prized rookie contested to a chorus of cheers from a pro-Lakers crowd.
There was no shortage of qualified professionals there to memorialize the moment.
Media from distant lands such as China, Korea and Lithuania squeezed into press row, seated next to writers from Boston, Oregonian broadcasters and Chicago radio hosts.
They all saw what happened four minutes later. Flagg split two defenders in the open court and hammered home a tomahawk right-handed dunk for his first points.
There were many more missed shots from Flagg (14 to be exact) but they were easily forgotten.
The highlights were just that loud. Heck, even the shots that did not count, including an attempted poster dunk over Christian Koloko, brought attendees to their feet.
“Coaches had a lot of confidence in me, and wanted me to experiment and try new things,” Flagg said.
The thousands of fans even got the mano-a-mano showcase they craved in the second quarter, when Flagg got three consecutive isolation possessions against James in the mid-post.
The second ended when James stripped Flagg but was called for an iffy foul, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Frenzy became bedlam on the next play. Flagg talked trash to James, ran to his spot on the left wing, pivoted off the catch and nailed the shot before turning to exult with his future Mavericks varsity teammates, who cheered him on decked out in casual wear from their courtside seats.
When James’ inbounds play with 0.2 seconds remaining fell harmlessly to the ground, the seats quickly emptied as the Dylan Harper-less Spurs warmed up to play the VJ Edgecomb-less Sixers.
Even if the No. 2 and No. 3 selections, respectively, had played, that still may not have mattered.
Fans were there for Flagg, who gave them a memorable performance.
And as he melted into the shadows of the entry-level tunnel, the paying customers quickly disappeared into the suffocatingly hot Las Vegas night as they still processed what they had just witnessed.