{"id":610457,"date":"2026-04-28T03:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610457\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T03:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:02:07","slug":"flagg-edges-former-duke-teammate-knueppel-for-nba-rookie-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610457\/","title":{"rendered":"Flagg edges former Duke teammate Knueppel for NBA Rookie of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS (AP) \u2014 Cooper Flagg set a host of records for an NBA teenager<\/a> in an also-ran season for the Dallas Mavericks. Kon Knueppel helped the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> to a 25-win improvement that almost led to a spot in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder they ended up in a tight Rookie of the Year race.<\/p>\n

Flagg edged his former Duke teammate to win the award Monday night after becoming the first rookie since Michael Jordan in 1984-85 to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Flagg and Knueppel were first and second in rookie scoring, the first former college teammates to do that since UConn stars Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon in 2004-05. Philadelphia\u2019s VJ Edgecombe was the other finalist.<\/p>\n

Flagg and Knueppel traded places as betting favorites during the season, but Flagg\u2019s 96-point outburst over two games on the second-to-last weekend might have tipped the scales. Flagg was the favorite going into the announcement.<\/p>\n

The first of those games was Flagg\u2019s 51-point showing against Orlando,<\/a> the first time a teenager has scored 50 in the NBA. He broke his own record for a teenager of 49, set against Knueppel and the Hornets in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see the games every night. I can check the box scores,\u201d Flagg said when asked how close of an eye he kept on Knueppel. \u201cI think also I was watching Kon just because that\u2019s one of my brothers. We had such a good connection, and we\u2019re gonna be there for each other for the rest of our lives. I was watching him as a fan as well, but there was obviously that competition at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was, as expected, one of the closest votes in Rookie of the Year history.<\/p>\n

Only 26 points separated Flagg and Knueppel in a balloting where 100 reporters and broadcasters who cover the league ranked their top three rookies, with five points going to first place, three to second and one to third.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Scottie Barnes edged Evan Mobley by 15 points.<\/p>\n

There were three years where the award was shared because of a tie in the voting, and two of those included Duke players Elton Brand and Grant Hill. Brand and Steve Francis tied for the award in 2000, Hill and Jason Kidd \u2014 Flagg\u2019s current coach \u2014 tied in 1995 and Dave Cowens and Geoff Petrie tied in 1971.<\/p>\n

Knueppel, who was a one-and-done at Duke just like Flagg but turned 20 before his NBA career started, became the first rookie to lead the league in 3-pointers with 273.<\/p>\n

He averaged 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists, while shooting 42.5% from 3-point range to join Larry Bird and Paul Pierce as only the only NBA rookies to average 15 points and five rebounds per game while shooting better than 40% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

Behind Knueppel, Charlotte won 44 games before being eliminated by Orlando in the final round of the play-in tournament.<\/p>\n

Flagg thought he was joining a playoff contender after the Mavericks converted a 1.8% chance in the draft lottery and took him No. 1 overall. Knueppel was the fourth pick.<\/p>\n

Oft-injured center Anthony Davis was sidelined again as Dallas started slowly, and was traded to Washington before Flagg\u2019s fellow Duke alum, Kyrie Irving, could return from a knee injury. The Mavericks eventually decided to keep Irving out the entire season.<\/p>\n

Despite his team\u2019s steady slide in the standings, Flagg kept making history a year after leading Duke to the Final Four as just the fourth freshman to be named AP men\u2019s basketball player of the year. <\/p>\n

Flagg and Jordan are the only rookies to record multiple games of at least 45 points since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77.<\/p>\n

Flagg was playing against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this month when he scored 45 points and passed the 41-year-old for the most 40-point games by a teenager with his fourth. That game was the capper to the big weekend that might have decided the rookie race.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks ended up back in the lottery at 26-56, with Flagg having to carry a much heavier load than anticipated. He averaged 21.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals in 70 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you talk about pressure and things like that, this season was a lot different going into it and what I was expecting and how the season ended up turning out,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cI think dealing with that and adjusting and kind of getting thrown in on the fly right away like that helped me long-term and throughout the season just getting really comfortable. I think I grew in a lot of different areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rookie award was the sixth to be announced by the NBA since the end of the regular season. The others:<\/p>\n

\u2014 San Antonio\u2019s Victor Wembanyama was the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Oklahoma City\u2019s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got 96 of a possible 100 first-place votes to win the Clutch Player of the Year<\/a> award.<\/p>\n

\u2014 San Antonio\u2019s Keldon Johnson won Sixth Man of the Year.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Boston\u2019s Derrick White won the Sportsmanship Award<\/a>. That award, unlike most others, is selected solely by active players.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Atlanta\u2019s Nickeil Alexander-Walker won Most Improved Player.<\/a><\/p>\n

Other award announcements yet to be scheduled include MVP (either Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver\u2019s Nikola Jokic) and Coach of the Year (either Detroit\u2019s J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio\u2019s Mitch Johnson or Boston\u2019s Joe Mazzulla).<\/p>\n

The NBA will announce the Executive of the Year, the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year and the Hustle Award winner later this week.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Steve Reed in Charlotte, North Carolina, and AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS (AP) \u2014 Cooper Flagg set a host of records for an NBA teenager in an also-ran season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5554,402,265175,11949,761,760,180493,39048,7091,265178,51299,265177,217939,763,49546,72267,764,30947,3013,1055,7328,132928,2971,355,1063,3508,47176,1756,2256,5631,12168,3234,25166,6407,99,265176,18224,1022,1059,32090,2119],"class_list":{"0":"post-610457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-ben-gordon","11":"tag-charlotte-hornets","12":"tag-cooper-flagg","13":"tag-dallas-mavericks","14":"tag-dave-cowens","15":"tag-derrick-white","16":"tag-duke-blue-devils","17":"tag-elton-brand","18":"tag-evan-mobley","19":"tag-geoff-petrie","20":"tag-j-b-bickerstaff","21":"tag-jason-kidd","22":"tag-joe-mazzulla","23":"tag-keldon-johnson","24":"tag-kyrie-irving","25":"tag-larry-bird","26":"tag-lebron-james","27":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","28":"tag-michael-jordan","29":"tag-mitch-johnson","30":"tag-national-basketball-association","31":"tag-nba","32":"tag-nba-basketball","33":"tag-nc-state-wire","34":"tag-nickeil-alexander-walker","35":"tag-nikola-jokic","36":"tag-north-carolina","37":"tag-pa-state-wire","38":"tag-paul-pierce","39":"tag-pennsylvania","40":"tag-scottie-barnes","41":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","42":"tag-sports","43":"tag-steve-francis","44":"tag-teens","45":"tag-texas","46":"tag-tx-state-wire","47":"tag-victor-wembanyama","48":"tag-vj-edgecombe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}