{"id":614,"date":"2025-07-11T04:55:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T04:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/614\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T04:55:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T04:55:03","slug":"mavericks-rookie-cooper-flagg-all-business-as-he-makes-pro-debut-at-nba-2k26-summer-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/614\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg all business as he makes pro debut at NBA 2K26 Summer League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Roughly 45 minutes later, he wore the same stone-cold face as he came out for warmups shortly after 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was obviously a little nervous, it\u2019s a new environment, a lot of new fans and whatnot,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cSo I was a little nervous, a little excited, but just happy to be here. It\u2019s a dream come true, so I\u2019m just trying to enjoy the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His fans more than made up for it with plenty of energy, electrifying the jam-packed arena that cheered loudest when he was announced as a starter in his first Summer League game.<\/p>\n<p>Flagg missed his first two attempts of the game, picked up his first foul just 46 seconds into the game, and gave the crowd what they\u2019d been anticipating, going one-on-one with fellow fan favorite James.<\/p>\n<p>James buried his first attempt over Flagg, and then hit a 3-pointer after the 6-foot-8 Duke product missed his second attempt to give the Lakers a 5-0 lead.<\/p>\n<p>Flagg excited the crowd\u00a0at the 4:30 mark of the first quarter, jamming home his first points.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">COOPER FLAGG&#8217;S FIRST BUCKET IN A MAVS UNIFORM IS A BIG-TIME SLAM \u203c\ufe0f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBA2KSummerLeague?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#NBA2KSummerLeague<\/a> on ESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/h7Ta564bS8\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/h7Ta564bS8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1943466935867277529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Early in the second quarter, Flagg nearly sent every fan in the building into a frenzy when he made a spin move into the paint and attempted a one-handed\u00a0slam dunk over 7-foot Christian Koloko. The ball caromed off the back of the rim and still drew plenty of oohs and ahhs.<\/p>\n<p>Generally filled with Lakers fans when the team plays in the summer, the arena was full of emotion with a fair share of Mavericks fans in attendance to see the 2025 National college player of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Like 15-year-old Baer Epple, 15, who was seated with his father Chad in the third row from the court, donning Dirk Nowitzki\u2019s Mavericks jersey.<\/p>\n<p>Epple said he\u2019s been following Flagg since before his Duke days, beginning with his junior year at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport, Maine.<\/p>\n<p>The 15-year-old who is in Las Vegas from Seattle for an AAU tournament said he\u2019s been a Mavericks fan for roughly four years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven more of a fan now that they got Cooper Flagg,\u201d Epple said. \u201cHopefully he does good, that\u2019d be pretty cool to see. I don\u2019t want him to be like a bust or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mavericks coach Jason Kidd told The Associated Press before the game he was looking for nothing more than effort and grit in his team\u2019s opening game, as he wanted them all playing hard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis summer league is a little different when you have this type of turnout,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cBut the guys have had a couple practices. There\u2019s going to be some turnovers. I just want to see how they respond to a couple of mistakes being made, no one\u2019s gonna play a perfect game and be unselfish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for his prize draft pick: \u201cWe\u2019re all excited,\u201d Kidd said of Flagg. \u201cSeen enough of him on tape, so now it\u2019s good to see him on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roughly 45 minutes later, he wore the same stone-cold face as he came out for warmups shortly after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[761,355,99],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","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=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}