Duke Blue Devils freshman superstar Cooper Flagg will have his name cemented as one of the best players in the history of the program should he bring the team to the championship this season. At least, this is what NBA legend Carmelo Anthony thinks about the young college star.
In one of the recent episodes of his podcast “7PM in Brooklyn,” NBA legend Carmelo Anthony praised Cooper Flagg for his standout performance at Duke this season. When asked about where he would place the freshman star in the rankings of all-time Duke players, he did not hesitate to place him in the “small room” with the greatest.
“He gets to the small room easy,” Anthony said. “The small room is Grant Hill, Christian, Bobby, JJ. He (Cooper) can be that guy on that table. He leads every statistical category. I enjoy watching him play because he just impacts the game at a totally high level.”
“He’s scoring in many different ways, cutting to the basket, transition, block shots, weak side block shots,” Anthony added. “He’s 6’9” with length to play defense. The way you can just move him around the court. He’s dominant. He takes over a game without scoring the ball, shooting the three.”
“You don’t see an 18-year-old kid dominating like that. But also, dominating to the point where you have a chance to go win it.”
Melo sees Cooper Flagg joining the Duke greats table by locking up the National Championship 🫡 pic.twitter.com/TlG7GSSqK2
— 7PM in Brooklyn (@7PMinBrooklyn) April 3, 2025
Duke HC Gets Honest on Cooper Flagg’s Draft Readiness
In an interview with ESPN, Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball head coach Jon Scheyer opened up about his honest insights on the readiness of his star player, Cooper Flagg, for the 2025 NBA draft.
While he has only praises for Flagg, the coach thinks he may not have done enough to prepare him for the challenges of playing for the NBA.
“I think he’s always looked like the No. 1 pick in the draft, even early in the year, and, you know, for him, I don’t know if I prepared him well enough early in the early in the season for some of the moments he’d be in,” Scheyer said.
“He (has) such a killer instinct, you know, look for us,” he added. “Fortunately, we haven’t been in a lot of close games, and the ones that we have, especially the last part of the year, he’s made huge plays for us. Part of his genius is the fact that he can win a game with scoring, rebounding, steals, blocks, you name it.”
“Whatever you need, whatever that game requires, he finds a way to come up with those plays to help us win.”
Currently, Cooper Flag is the apparent overall first pick for the 2025 NBA draft, should he choose to declare for it.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
