Duke history & Cooper Flagg: Will the Dallas Mavericks rookie break the mold?
Cooper Flagg is projected to be the NBA’s Rookie of the Year en route to a place in the Basketball Hall of Fame, but unless he does something he doesn’t need to do, or his alma mater changes tradition, there is one achievement he will never reach.
As great as Flagg was at Duke, the Blue Devils only retire jerseys of players who graduated from Duke. The last jersey it retired was J.J. Redick, in 2007. Because how many lottery picks, much less the No. 1 overall selection, need their degree?
In Flagg’s season at Duke, he did it all save for winning the national title; Duke lost in the Final Four. Shortly thereafter, like any NBA-aspiring player, he was gone “to the league.” Only 100 credit hours or so shy of his degree.
You may be surprised to know that after the season was over, Flagg still came back to Duke, including for a camp shortly before the start of the fall semester.
Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium is Hogwarts, and its charm is its devotion to a different time in college sports. A time when players played for four years, and graduated from college. Both are now antiquated relics to be housed, and studied, in a museum.
Flagg may have characteristics of someone who would have thrived in a four-year college career complete with the degree, but he is a product of the current basketball model that is entirely about money, and training to make as much of it as possible.
At 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the American Airlines Center, Flagg will make his NBA debut when the Dallas Mavericks host the San Antonio Spurs . This is one of the most anticipated NBA debuts since LeBron James entered the league in 2003.
The expectations for Flagg eclipse The Patently Absurd to Categorically Moronic.
To justify a trade he had nothing to do with, and a lottery pick that was a bolt of lightning inside a lightning strike, Flagg has to be Luka Doncic’s equal, and lead the Mavs to an NBA title.
As an alum of Duke, Flagg has history on his side, and decidedly against him.
The Duke history with Cooper Flagg
Starting with Johnny Dawkins in 1986, Duke has produced 26 players who were picked in the top 10 of the NBA Draft. This list is a wide array of talent that includes the can’t-miss prospect who indeed could not miss, Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving.
Irving is one of four Dukies from that list who were named the NBA’s rookie of the year — Paolo Banchero (2023), Irving (2012), Elton Brand (2000), and Grant Hill (1995).
Because of injury, Irving only appeared in 11 games in his one season at Duke before he declared for the NBA Draft. He was the No. 1 overall pick in 2011, and, paired with LeBron James, to led the Cavaliers to their first ever NBA title, in 2016.
Irving will one day be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The list also includes Jayson Tatum, the third overall pick of the Boston Celtics in 2017. Tatum is an All-NBA player, Olympic gold medalist, and won his first NBA title in 2024, against Irving and the Mavericks.
The list also includes players whose careers, stories, are incomplete, players such as Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, R.J. Barrett and Banchero.
The Duke history against Cooper Flagg
Duke has never produced an NBA MVP, and eight Duke alums have been a part of teams that won the NBA title. That number feels impossibly low.
Mostly, this list features players who enjoyed long careers in the NBA, or overseas. Some enjoyed great years here and there, players such as Brand.
Shane Battier was a great college player who figured out quickly his game was not NBA-ready, so he adapted and became a solid role player, reliable 3-point shooter, and monster defender.
Of all of those great players listed above, a handful were derailed by injury. Grant Hill tops many “What Ifs” list in sports history. After a solid rookie year, Bulls guard Jay Williams suffered a career-ending injury in a motorcycle accident.
“Zion” and “Injury news” have been a top Google search since he was the No. 1 pick in 2019; he has averaged 35 games a season, and missed entire 2021-22 schedule.
Which leads this conversation no Mavs fan wants to hear: Danny Ferry. Christian Laettner.
Ferry was the national player of the year in 1989, the second overall pick of the L.A. Clippers, who was quickly exposed by the NBA. He was too slow, and didn’t have the game. Nonetheless, he lasted 13 NBA seasons, primarily coming off the bench.
And then there the quintessential Dukie, Laettner. The white boy who was the national player of the year whose game did translate to the league, but not to its highest tier.
The third overall pick in 1992, he enjoyed a 13-year career in the NBA and was an All-Star once. He played on six teams, including the Mavericks in 2000-01.
Somewhere on this wide spectrum of distinguished Duke alums Cooper Flagg will sit.
The Mavs desperately need him to be closer to Kyrie or Tatum, and miles away from Zion or Ferry.
This story was originally published October 22, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
