The Duke Blue Devils went on a great run during the 2024-25 college basketball season. Led by Cooper Flagg, the storied program made it all the way to the Final Four before being eliminated by the Houston Cougars.
Flagg lived up to all of the hype in his lone season at Duke. That impressive season led to him being drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
While all eyes are on Flagg heading into his first NBA season, he has won yet another prestigious college basketball award.
As shared by the NCAA in a post on X, Flagg took home the ESPY’s Best College Athlete – Men’s Sports award. He was well-deserving of that honor.
It didn’t take long for the Blue Devils to share their reaction to the news
Duke took to social media as well to respond to Flagg’s new award. The post was just two words long.
“Yeah Coop!!!” it read
During his one season with the Blue Devils, Flagg put together big-time numbers. He played in 37 games, averaging 19.2 points per game to go along with 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 1.4 steals. Flagg also shot 48.1 percent from the floor and knocked down 38.5 percent of his three-point attempts.
Heading into the NBA, Flagg is expected to be an instant impact player. The Mavericks are going to use him in multiple different ways.
Jason Kidd has made it clear that he plans to give Flagg minutes at the point guard position. If that experiment works out, he’ll be able to create major matchup issues for opposing defenses who have to guard the size that Dallas can put on the floor.
NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal recently spoke out about Flagg as well. He loves the fit with the Mavericks for the young forward.
Yeah Coop!!! https://t.co/IE97cNCPS4
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) July 17, 2025
Great young man. I know both his parents very, very well,” O’Neal said. “Everything about this city, this organization, it’s going to be the right place. And then we’ll give him time to develop. We all remember Dirk [Nowitzki] wasn’t Dirk when he first got here. I think this is a great organization, a great town for him to start off his NBA career.”
All of that being said, Flagg has now added another award to his collection. He will be missed at Duke, but Blue Devils fans will continue rooting him on in Dallas.
