Cooper Flagg NBA Draft sweepstakes result a ‘fantastic feeling' for Rolando Blackman

New York Times

4 hours ago

As the Dallas Mavericks attempted to turn the page on a miserable season, they called on a franchise great for assistance.
During his 11 years in Dallas, Rolando Blackman scored 16,643 points, more than any other Maverick besides Dirk Nowitzki. Rick Welts, who signed on as Mavericks CEO two months before Dallas made the Luka Dončić trade, asked Blackman if he would be the team's on-stage representative at the NBA Draft Lottery in May.
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Welts cautioned Blackman that the Mavericks only had a 1.8 percent chance of winning the first pick. Blackman accepted anyway.
Blackman arrived two hours early to the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, where the lottery was held, and nervously paced the room. When NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum finished announcing the results, Blackman celebrated with a double fist pump. He walked up to Tatum and hugged him, then pointed at Welts, who was seated in the crowd.
1.8% chance. #MFFL pic.twitter.com/QHqjP4DlR9
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) May 13, 2025
As he did that, Blackman noticed Cooper Flagg, the crown jewel of this year's class, sitting nearby.
'A time of renewal is what it is. For our organization, for our fans,' Blackman said. 'Really having the opportunity to live in a bastion of positivity for our future.'
On Wednesday, the Mavericks officially will select Flagg with the No. 1 pick. Blackman, who was chosen eight spots behind fellow Mavericks great Mark Aguirre in the 1981 NBA Draft — the last time Dallas had the first selection — is well aware of how gifted Flagg, an 18-year-old forward from Newport, Maine, is on the court.
'The No. 1 player can actually play,' Blackman said.
In his only college season, Flagg was noticeably productive, averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks. He led the country in box-plus minus, a popular catch-all metric, and became the first freshman male to win the Naismith College Player of the Year award since another former Duke star, Zion Williamson. Only five freshmen, men and women, have won the prestigious award: Flagg, Paige Bueckers (UConn, 2021), Williamson (2019), Anthony Davis (Kentucky, 2012) and Kevin Durant (Texas, 2007).
Flagg did all of this after choosing to skip a year of high school. In August 2023, he reclassified to go to college a year early. He was 17 years old when Duke played its first 2024-25 game in November.
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'Just a fantastic feeling,' Blackman said about winning the Flagg sweepstakes. 'I wish I could bottle it. I don't know why scientists don't spend more time bottling that feeling and putting it on the shelves so people could have it twice a day.'
The draft lottery results had been decided for roughly an hour before they were announced to the public. Matt Riccardi, the Mavericks assistant general manager, was the team's representative in the back room where the drawing actually took place. Out of 1,001 possible combinations, only 18 meant Dallas would move up to No. 1. One of the Mavericks' winning combinations was '10-14-11-7,' which came up.
Riccardi brought a blue and yellow sticker of an owl as a totem. It was a nod to the 'Il Gufo' nickname his Italian friends gave him years earlier. On stage, however, Blackman didn't carry any good luck charms.
He was armed only with positive vibes.
'No superstitions,' Blackman said. 'I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I don't go through any superstitions.
'What we have to do as players — and to get to where I got to — you can't be getting into that superstitious stuff. You have to deal with the reality of what's in front of you and deal with it then and there. I can only control my spirit and evoke exactly what I want to evoke, which is, 'We're getting this.''
The Mavericks went 44 years between having the No. 1 pick. The 1981 draft helped set up the franchise for a near-decade of success. The Mavericks were a perennial playoff team, and in 1988, they reached the Western Conference finals for the first time.
On Wednesday, Aguirre and Blackman both will attend a draft party the Mavericks are hosting at the American Airlines Center. As will Bueckers, the former UConn star the Dallas Wings took No. 1 in the WNBA Draft in April, and former Mavericks Josh Howard and Nick Van Exel.
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After all the lows the Mavericks experienced from February until April — some self-inflicted and others bad luck — Blackman believes the time is right to celebrate.
'We were going through a little bit of a beating,' Blackman said. 'What the Mavericks went through also with the injuries and all the things that happened, it turns the whole car around. We get to ride on the road. We get to ride on the middle lanes and take up the middle lane.'
(Photo of Matt Riccardi, Rick Welts and Rolando Blackman: Jeff Haynes / NBAE via Getty Images)