The Dallas Mavericks are living a happy life, considering how dark the future of the franchise looked one year ago right now. They just traded Luka Doncic for an injury-prone Anthony Davis and Max Christie, while watching Kyrie Irving tear his ACL after carrying the Mavericks’ guard play in Doncic’s absence. However, everything changed when the Mavericks won the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery and selected Cooper Flagg to be the franchise’s next cornerstone.
Flagg has delivered on his pre-NBA hype by averaging 20.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 4.2 assists so far in his rookie season. While the race for Rookie of the Year against Kon Knueppel won’t be easy, Flagg is proving he will be an NBA star for a long time coming. Despite his skill at the game, it doesn’t seem like Flagg is a student of the game like many superstars before him.
In an interview with Andscape’s Marc J. Spears, Flagg made a pretty shocking admission for most NBA fans who remember the 2000s still. Flagg admitted he isn’t familiar with the on-court prowess of his head coach, Jason Kidd, arguably one of the greatest point guards of the previous generation.
“I’m not extremely familiar. I know he’s a legend, but no. I didn’t watch J-Kidd a ton.”
Kidd played from 1994 to 2013, averaging 12.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 8.7 assists over his career and retiring with the third-most assists of all time (12,091). He was a triple-double machine for his time as a pure two-way guard who led the New Jersey Nets to two NBA Finals appearances. He’s a six-time All-NBA selection, nine-time All-Defensive Selection, and a 10-time All-Star, ultimately winning his only career championship with the Mavericks in 2011.
Kidd is not only an NBA legend but a Mavericks legend, so hearing the Mavericks’ future superstar make this admission about the point guard of their 2011 Championship team has been unsettling. This has also sparked debates among fans about whether it’s okay for a player of Flagg’s caliber to be unfamiliar with such recent history of the sport.
“A lot of these Gen Z hoopers are not real students of the game. They’re just good at it,” said one fan criticizing Flagg for not knowing the history of the game.
“The sad reality is most of the stars in the modern NBA are casual hoop fans, and it’s likely that the lore of the NBA will die out cuz they don’t care about the legacy aspect anymore,” said a concerned fan.
“New generation players didn’t grow up watching Jason Kidd. Time moves fast. Legends become history quicker than we think,” said one fan defending Flagg by pointing out his youth.
“He was literally born after Jason Kidd’s prime, and by the time Cooper was 7 years old, Jason Kidd was retired. Why tf would he know much about Jason Kidd? He knows of him and his legacy. That’s good enough,” said another fan.
“‘Well obviously since he wasn’t even born.’ I guess we’re asking too much for a player to use YouTube and find out the basics about his coach, who happens to be a top 10 all-time in his position,” said one fan who wasn’t buying the excuses about Flagg being too young.
Given that Flagg has previously called Larry Bird his favorite player ever, we can’t say his age is the reason he’s not aware of Kidd’s nBA accomplishments. Flagg likely never dug into watching high-level point guard clips while emerging as a frontcourt prospect his entire high school career.
It’s okay for Flagg to not know the details of Kidd’s playing career, as long as he trusts Kidd to put him in the best possible position to succeed in his career. Given the developmental success of playing Flagg as a point guard early this season despite that not being his preferred position, it’s fair to say Flagg is learning what he has to directly from the man instead of from archival footage.
