Cooper Flagg declares for NBA Draft
Duke Blue Devils forward Cooper Flagg, the long-presumed No. 1 overall pick, announced Monday that he will declare for the NBA Draft.
Flagg, 18, averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists for the Blue Devils in his freshman season, helping lead the team to a Final Four appearance.
'It was an incredible year, probably the best year of my life,' Flagg said in a video posted to Instagram. 'I have so much gratitude. I feel so blessed for all the opportunities that I was given. Duke has always been a dream for me, but I'm excited to announce that I'll be entering my name into the 2025 NBA Draft. Today's just the beginning, but I have the brotherhood with me for life.'
Flagg was a highly touted prospect before his lone year at Duke, finishing his high school career in 2024 as the consensus top recruit of his class. That summer, Flagg was also invited to be a part of the USA Select Team, practicing against the men's national basketball team ahead of the Paris Olympics.
In addition to helping lead the Blue Devils to the Final Four, Flagg won the John R. Wooden Award for college basketball's most outstanding player, becoming only the fourth freshman to ever do so.
Flagg previously hinted at a possible return to Duke for another season, telling The Athletic in February, 'I want to come back next year. I still feel like a kid. This is the only way I've ever known college.'
Instead, Flagg will head to the NBA.
The league's draft is scheduled for June 25, when most expect Flagg to be selected first overall. The three teams with the best odds to win the draft lottery and select Flagg are the Utah Jazz, the Washington Wizards and the Charlotte Hornets, with each having a 14% chance of winning the first pick.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
28 minutes ago
- NBC News
The Pacers' lead in the NBA Finals was more than a decade in the making
OKLAHOMA CITY — Every answer to what has become the most-asked question in the NBA — how exactly the Indiana Pacers continue to pull off one improbable postseason comeback after another — must include the gutsy shotmaking of Tyrese Haliburton. His game-winning shot with 0.3 seconds remaining in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday was the fifth time Haliburton made a shot to either take the lead or tie in the final five seconds, the most of any player in a single postseason in 27 years. Just as notable, but omitted from the highlights, was what happened 10.8 seconds earlier. Trailing by 1 point, Indiana had grabbed a defensive rebound and was pushing the ball up the court for its final possession. It would have been a logical time for coach Rick Carlisle to call the team's final timeout and remind players of their instructions inside a decibel-pounding atmosphere he described as 'madness.' Yet Carlisle did not call a timeout. He did not bark from the sideline. He never took his hands off his hips as Haliburton zoomed past before rising up for his jump shot, because Carlisle had already laid out the plan one possession earlier, during a break in play as officials reviewed an out-of-bounds play that eventually gave the ball to Oklahoma City with 22 seconds to play. 'If we get a stop and get the rebound,' he told the Pacers, 'we're going to go.' That decision to let his players dictate the final moments, and the game-winning sequence that followed, has helped Indiana grab early control of the championship series. And it can be traced to more than a decade earlier, when the Pacers' coach first learned how to relinquish control of his team's offense. That evolution in coaching style led to a championship in Dallas in 2011 and has now brought Indiana three victories from its first NBA championship. 'If the narrative was 'He's controlling,' it couldn't be more untrue,' Pacers backup point guard T.J. McConnell said. 'Me and Ty, what we see out there, he lets us go. The empowerment that he shows us as players has been incredible, and it's a big reason I think for a lot of our success.' When Carlisle first became a head coach in 2001, in Detroit, he was a study in contrasts: forward-looking and flexible enough to stay a step ahead by changing what his team ran based on his personnel, yet rigid in wanting ownership of the offense. He was a 'call every play from the sideline kind of coach,' said a former Pistons staffer who did not want to be identified in order to preserve relationships within the NBA. The approach followed Carlisle to a first head-coaching stint in Indiana and then in 2008 to Dallas. Carlisle would call for a play dubbed 'four-up' to get star Dirk Nowitzki the ball, a former Dallas staff member said, 'and you would run the play.' But the Mavericks' roster featured point guard Jason Kidd, a Hall of Famer who needed no such hand-holding. The season's turning point came midway through when 'what I learned … was to give J-Kidd the ball and get out of the way,' Carlisle said Thursday. 'Let him run the show. Let him run the team.' The change eventually helped Dallas upset Miami during the 2011 Finals. Kidd and fellow Mavericks guard J.J. Barea, given the reins by Carlisle to direct the offense and find Nowitzki, rallied after trailing in the fourth quarter by 15 points in Game 2 to win the game and turn the series. The long-tail effects of Carlisle's adaptation are still being felt 14 years later in Indianapolis, where his development of, and confidence in, Haliburton has allowed the Pacers' offense to thrive in pressure-packed moments. Of the three all-time teams to win a Finals game after trailing by at least 15 points in the fourth quarter, two of them have now been coached by Carlisle. And both comebacks followed scripts that were largely written by the players themselves. In the modern NBA, and especially the Finals, where defenses have multiple days to prepare, calling plays from the sideline routinely 'doesn't work, it's easy to scout,' Pacers center Myles Turner said. 'But when you have random movement on offense, guys that are someone like Tyrese who wants to pass the ball, it makes the game a little bit easier.' Carlisle called his collaboration with Haliburton 'very similar' to developing trust in Kidd more than a decade earlier, and also entrusting Luka Doncic with the offense in Dallas from 2018-21. 'It's pretty clear when you have a player of that kind of magnitude, that kind of presence, that kind of knowledge and vision and depth, you got to let them do what they do,' Carlisle said. 'They're going to have some ups and downs. They're going to make some mistakes. If they're doing it consistent with how they're seeing the game, the lessons learned will be more impactful.' The wide latitude Carlisle now affords his point guards doesn't come automatically. In 2015 while in Dallas, he butted heads with Rajon Rondo over the direction of the offense, and Rondo was soon gone. (Years later, Rondo said he was told by Mavericks management that Carlisle no longer wanted to coach him.) In 2018, Dallas acquired wunderkind guard Luka Doncic, who during a preseason game threw an intercepted behind-the-back pass with a nonchalance that displeased Carlisle, the former Mavericks staffer said. On the next play down the floor, the person added, Doncic did it again. 'I think Rick probably found out shortly after that he's not going to win that power struggle,' the former Dallas staffer said. 'But also empowering players to be who they are can be beneficial to everybody.' Even in 2021, during Carlisle's first season coaching Indiana, 'we had a game … where he stopped us and called a play every single possession,' Turner said. When center Tony Bradley first joined Indiana on a 10-day contract in early March, he arrived having heard 'mixed reviews' from players around the league about playing for Carlisle, Bradley said with a smile. (They did not align with reality, Bradley added, saying Carlisle 'is very open and lets us make the reads.') Those reviews may be because Carlisle's standards remain as high as ever. But the coach's accountability comes with an incentive. With more trust comes more freedom. 'He won't let any of the teammates settle regardless of who you are from top to bottom, and that makes a difference,' said Pacers big man James Johnson, who played for the coach in Dallas, as well. 'There's always a lot of coaches that are afraid to get on their top players and they're afraid to show their different mistakes or they might have different meetings with [superstars]. In Rick's case, it's not like that. It's in front of everybody and it's 'get better, and we need you to get better' mindset.' 'When you get freedom to run the show a little bit you feel a little more entitled and you feel like the obligation to get the job done is more on your shoulders,' Johnson continued. 'He lets us handle a lot of our own mistakes within our own locker room. Letting the power or the authority of his position get in the way never happens here. There's a lot of great coaches I've played for, and I feel like Rick is definitely one of the few ones that allow that to happen.' It didn't just happen over the last six weeks since the playoffs began, or the last 11 seconds of Game 1. It took place years earlier, a decision that has already won one title and has put Carlisle on the path to potentially win another.
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Team GB sprint star admits European hat-trick bid is mission 'to redeem myself'
The sprinter had a disappointing 2024 summer ruined by injury, missing out on defending his 200m crown before failing to make the 100m final at the Olympics, but is now on the comeback trail Zharnel Hughes has a European hat-trick on his mind as he begins his road to redemption. The 29-year-old missed out on defending his 200m continental crown at Rome 2024, when he was forced to withdraw from the competition due to a hamstring injury, and failed to make the 100m final at the Olympics which followed. Hughes then pulled out of the 200m in Paris through injury, with his hamstring again the issue, leaving him determined to put the record straight heading into this summer and beyond. "It was very difficult for me." he said. "The injury happened the week before the European Championships and I was looking forward to going back and regaining that title, it was on my mind. "I really wanted to go and give the fans a performance they would have liked but sadly injuries do happen in this sport. Hopefully next season I can keep myself healthy, go in there and redeem myself. "I want to go back and get those titles. I'm definitely looking at it as a chance for redemption." Hughes already has a glittering European CV to his name, with individual 100m and 4x100m relay golds from Berlin 2018. Four years later, in Munich, the sprinter lost his title as the fastest man in Europe, narrowly pipped to gold by Italy's Marcell Jacobs in the 100m. Hughes bounced back to take the 200m title and add a second 4x100m relay gold to his tally but he now wants to go one-step further and is targeting a golden hat-trick on home soil. "I'm looking forward to getting all three boxes ticked this time, that is my aim,' he said. "My mind is set on it and I'm looking forward to executing it. It would be an amazing accomplishment because I've won all the medals before - but I want to cement the hat-trick." The cherry on top of the cake for the sprinter would be lowering his own 100m and 200m British records in front of a packed Alexander Stadium. "If I can run super fast and break a British record in front of a home crowd, that would be amazing," he added. "I definitely want to lower the record, it's in my plans. In Birmingham 2026, I just want to do a sub-10 performance for the fans and get the win." A quarter of a million tickets for the event will go on sale in September, and prices starting from just £10 for adults. Organisers have ambitions to create one of the most talked about European athletics events in history and Hughes wants to put on a show for those who snap up tickets. "I love the fact that the ticket prices are so flexible because it increases the volume of people in the stadium," he said. "I feel like this is a whole new era to inspire upcoming athletes. The support has always been good in the past but its getting better every time we compete. "I'm looking forward to going out there and doing that again. They're looking up to us and I'm all about leaving that positive impact on the youth."
The Herald Scotland
4 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
What happened to Thunder vs. Pacers? OKC has regrets after Game 1
NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder put up another 30-point performance. An arena full of mostly Thunder fans - save for the full-time non-basketball operations Pacers employees who were flown out for the game - had nearly 48 minutes of game action to celebrate. "This arena is madness ... from a road perspective, the decibels were insane," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. When the game ended, nearly 18,000 Thunder fans left the arena disappointed. The Thunder have regrets. They squandered an opportunity. They failed to take full advantage of those Pacers turnovers and put the Pacers away. They failed to hold onto a 15-point lead early in the fourth quarter and a nine-point lead late in the fourth quarter. They failed to take advantage of Gilgeous-Alexander's 38-point game. They failed to win Game 1 Thursday, June 5. The resilient Pacers defeated the Thunder 111-110, taking a 1-0 series lead on Tyrese Haliburton's 21-foot jump shot with 0.3 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. "We got to learn from it, we got to improve like we would if we had won the game and get ourselves ready for Game 2. That's really what it comes down to," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. While the Thunder were disappointed, there was not any panic. Oklahoma City lost Game 1 to Denver in the Western Conference semifinals and won the series in seven games. "The playoffs take you to the limit," Daigneault said. "They put your back against the wall, in games, in series. If you make it this far, you have to endure to do that. It gives you rich experiences that you can draw on. ... "There's a lot more games left in the series. We understand that. We got to get ourselves to zero, as we always do. That's a habit that hopefully we've formed. These guys have made a habit of being able to get ourselves centered and play our best game in the next game." More Jeff Zillgitt: Pacers teach Thunder hard lesson in NBA Finals Game 1. You cannot count them out. The Thunder have not lost consecutive games in the playoffs and lost two consecutive games just twice during the regular season. They won 68 regular-season games and 12 playoff games. They know what is required. They will look at the film. Of Indiana's 25 turnovers, the Thunder had just 11 points off those turnovers. They shot just 39.8% from the field. Daigneault tinkered with the starting lineup, inserting Cason Wallace in place of Isaiah Hartenstein. Chet Holmgren had just six points and was not a factor. "The series isn't first to one, it's first to four," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We have four more games to get, they have three. That's just where we are. We got to understand that, and we got to get to four before they get to three, if we want to win the NBA championship. "It's that simple. It's not rocket science. We lost Game 1. We have to be better."
