Ahead of his NBA debut on Wednesday against the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks star rookie Cooper Flagg has already been warned about what it’s like to go up against star big man Victor Wembanyama.
“I have obviously seen tape. I have never seen him play in person,” Flagg told reporters Tuesday when asked about facing Wembanyama in his first career game. “From what the guys have told me, he’s kind of something you have never seen before, and you can’t really understand that till you see it in person.”
The No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA draft, Wembanyama has shown the makings of a phenom who could eventually become the face of the league. The 21-year-old was named the 2024 NBA Rookie of the Year and finished second in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year after leading the league in blocks. His sophomore campaign was cut short after 46 games due to the discovery of deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder, though he led the league in blocks for the second straight year.
Flagg had also been pegged as a future superstar well before his freshman season at Duke, and he lived up to expectations on the college level by earning National Player of the Year honors. The Mavs lucked into the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft despite having less than two percent odds to win the lottery, and they unsurprisingly selected him to assume the mantle of the future face of the franchise.
Both Flagg and Wembanyama represent a new breed of do-it-all type players, as their defensive skills will be just as important to their respective teams as their offensive production. Still, with Wembanyama entering his third year in the league, he will be much further along in his development as he tries to help the Spurs end their rebuild and contend for a playoff spot.
The Dallas-San Antonio rivalry is one of the fiercest rivalries in the NBA, so Flagg and Wembanyama will be tied together for quite some time as they battle it out each year.
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