{"id":585963,"date":"2026-04-04T23:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585963\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T23:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:51:13","slug":"why-mavericks-cooper-flagg-jason-kidd-might-share-the-same-nba-roty-fate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585963\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg, Jason Kidd might share the same NBA ROTY fate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA Rookie of the Year race is always one of the most contentious awards to decide. There have been winners who were drafted the year prior, standards often shift, and some players who held the title could not quite keep the momentum up for more years. So far, there are also three ties in NBA ROTY history with Coach Jason Kidd being part of one. Will Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg <\/a>and Charlotte Hornets<\/a>‘ Kon Knueppel share the same fate?<\/p>\n

History of ties in the NBA ROTY race<\/p>\n

Look, Flagg might be taking center stage when it comes to the grander scheme of things but Knueppel has also been breaking records. The Mavericks<\/a> star does hold the youngest 50-point game ever. The Hornets candidate for NBA ROTY also notched the NBA rookie record for three-pointers made. Not to mention, he also usurped Kemba Walker for most three-pointers made in Hornets history. Clearly, these two have been very different in playing styles but that does not mean that NBA ROTY voters have to choose one or the other. History proves it.<\/p>\n

Dave Cowens and Geoff Petrie, for instance, could be farther in terms of how they play on the court. Despite this, the bruising center for the Boston Celtics<\/a> and high-volume scorer out of the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> ended up sharing NBA ROTY honors back in 1971. Coach Kidd, who played for the Mavericks back then, was also floor general while Grant Hill was an all-arounder for the Detroit Pistons<\/a>. The two became named co-NBA ROTY winners in 1994-95.<\/p>\n

The last time a tie happened was a fairly long time ago. It was between a shift guard from the Houston Rockets<\/a> in Steve Francis and a hulking post-move maestro in Elton Brand from the Chicago Bulls<\/a>. A similar thing happened between the two and they both remain winners of the 2000 NBA ROTY.<\/p>\n

Coach Kidd and Flagg may play under the Mavericks system but that might not be the only thing they share when the season nears its end. The Dallas head coach even boldly stated that he knows who comes out of this race, via Christian Clark of The Athletic.<\/a><\/p>\n

“He should be rookie of the year. The country is not watching the same thing we get to watch on a daily basis. He\u2019s in rare air,” Coach Kidd said after Flagg notched the youngest 50-point game in league history.<\/p>\n

Will the Mavericks rookie create some separation? Is the Hornets sharpshooter going to make things close for another tie? Only time and history will tell.<\/p>\n

More Mavericks News:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA Rookie of the Year race is always one of the most contentious awards to decide. There…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-585963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}