Every time Jack Johnson\u2019s big Black fists smashed into a white fighter\u2019s face, he wasn\u2019t just breaking the bones of his opponents, but the spirit of White America. Blow after blow after blow. Out of this shame, a mythos was born. One after another, white fighters propped up like scarecrows. One after another, collapsing. As cultural critic Gerald Early has argued, Johnson\u2019s fights became less about sport and more about the drama of race in America, with every knockout symbolizing a direct challenge to white supremacy. For the next 100 years, across multiple sports, whites have tried to find the next champion to return them to glory. This myth-making even inspired Howard Sackler\u2019s Pulitzer-winning play The Great White Hope.<\/p>\n
In basketball, figures like Jerry West and \u201cPistol\u201d Pete Maravich represented Anglo excellence before the NBA\u2019s full desegregation revealed the overwhelming superiority of African-American players. By the time Larry Bird rose in the 1980s, the Great White Hope narrative had simply been repackaged for a new generation. Bird was a badass hick from Indiana. Bird was a godsend to Boston\u2019s white working class. Bird was Magic\u2019s equal. Bird was the Great White Hope disguised as the Great White Hope denier.<\/p>\n
From a 1985 Sports Illustrated profile:<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to be seen as the Great White Hope. I just want to be a great basketball player, period.<\/p>\n
But that was 40 years ago. The MVP-level white players since have all been European (Dirk Nowitzki, Luka Don\u010di\u0107, Nikola Joki\u0107). There hasn\u2019t been an American white All-Star in the NBA since Kevin Love in 2018: a good player, but no superstar.<\/p>\n
If there were ever a made-for-TV plot for the next Great White Hope to emerge, Sackler couldn\u2019t have imagined a better milieu than the Dallas Mavericks. This is the only franchise that can say its three best all-time players are all white (Steve Nash, Nowitzki, Don\u010di\u0107). With Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s trade to the Lakers still fresh and raw<\/a>, Dallas are desperate. The city has been languishing, nursing an open wound. So when luck on the level of conspiracy fell<\/a> in Harrison\u2019s lap, Cooper Flagg<\/a> became part of a myth-cycle that pre-dates him by a millennium.<\/p>\n Not since LeBron James in 2003 has a rookie arrived carrying such immense expectations, along with the hopes of a city desperate for deliverance. In Dallas, the 18-year-old Flagg is walking into a shit show.<\/a> The Don\u010di\u0107 trade was one of the worst ever. When he was traded, the fanbase protested losing him outside the arena for weeks, even dragging a coffin<\/a> to the steps of American Airlines Center. A dead fandom in a dead box. Harrison should thank his dumb luck, or the scripted simulacrum that landed him Flagg, who ostensibly saved his job.<\/p>\n None of this is Flagg\u2019s fault. He\u2019s just a nice kid from Maine who wants to hoop. But the reality is the Mavericks are a massive question mark. Harrison is still the GM, so anything is possible regarding roster construction. Kyrie Irving re-signed with Dallas this summer, but is out for the year with a torn ACL. Anthony Davis is a former superstar who might still have something special left in the tank at 32, but remains the most injury-prone big man in the NBA. The rest of the roster has rangy bigs and defensive-minded wings. Shot-creation will fall primarily on Flagg, who will be the rightful favorite for Rookie of the Year. He also has a chance, with Irving out, to lead the Mavs in scoring and assists. Flagg is more known for his all-around two-way game, especially his voracious defense. But in year one, he will be asked to run the offense.<\/p>\n Checking out his full shooting profile reveals the cracks and the promise. From Maine United to Montverde to Duke, the data shows what kind of looks he hunts and what he makes of them. Layups (1.22 points per shot) and free throws (a ridiculous 1.62) are his bread-and-butter. Unguarded catch-and-shoot threes are money at 1.08 points per shot. Then the cracks: pull-up twos at 0.64, floaters at 0.87 sink like stones. This is where defense will force him in year one. As a rookie, he\u2019ll have to live at the rim and on the line. The polished Bird-style pull-up daggers will come later.<\/p>\n Cooper Flagg shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected first overall by the Dallas Mavericks in June\u2019s draft. Photograph: Timothy A Clary\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Unlike the opponents Johnson put on the floor, Flagg is the real deal. He obliterates the old stereotype of the \u201ccrafty but unathletic\u201d white player. His vertical leap is violent and quick, his defense freakishly reactive. He can shoot, handle, defend and playmake. His favorite player? Bird. No shit. He has Bird\u2019s bawdy panache, too, which he will need every ounce of, playing for Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson<\/a>. Her titles include: gambling lobbyist. Trump\u2019s top donor. Architect of legalized vice. Builder of casinos. Propagandist for Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza. She is all of those things, and she is also the main architect behind legalizing gambling in Texas so that she can sink Dallas into gambling degeneracy. Rookies don\u2019t get to decide where they\u2019re drafted. Flagg has to play for an owner whose politics are toxic. That\u2019s part of the pressure he\u2019ll face just trying to hoop.<\/p>\n Dallas have a fanbase accustomed to white superstars. Flagg doesn\u2019t have to fill Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s shoes, but he does have to follow in his footsteps. Dirk was the silent assassin, gentle and approachable. Don\u010di\u0107 was a devilish imp, sarcastic and full of South Dallas swag. Both were beloved. Flagg\u2019s handoff is broken before it begins. He\u2019ll have to dominate on the court and establish a presence off it.<\/p>\n So far, he\u2019s responded coolly: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t look at anything as pressure. \u2026 I\u2019m not worried about living up to certain players\u2019 expectations. \u2026 I\u2019m just going to be myself and really try to get better every single day that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n But Flagg\u2019s not only walking into racial baggage \u2013 he\u2019s entering a national zeitgeist. After the first two decades of the NBA being dominated by American whites, desegregation made clear that Black players were superior in every part of the game. Ironically, Nowitzki became the archetype that helped Europe catch up to America. Dirk was the first European-born MVP, but Joki\u0107 has racked up three of his own. Former Mav Nash won back-to-back MVPs in Phoenix. Meanwhile, the US has mostly produced white role players like JJ Redick: shooters, facilitators, table-setters. It\u2019s hard to continue to claim America is the best basketball country when it\u2019s been eight seasons since it produced an MVP.<\/p>\n