NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — I remember coming to this gym the past two years and realizing that this rumored-about kid from middle-of-nowhere Maine was not only the real deal on the court, but had the potential to become one of the cooler stories we’ve seen in basketball in the past 20 years.
Cooper Flagg, of course.
And if you’ve been following basketball in general over the past few weeks, you realize that Flagg’s time has officially come, months before he plays a game for Duke. While chatting in chilly gyms in recent days at the Nike Peach Jam, I remembered how much of Flagg’s origin story came from the courts here at the Riverview Park Activities Center, where Nike’s held its annual championship basketball event for close to 30 years. Before Flagg became the latest Next Big Thing, he was a rising fascination in high school circles.
He’s since morphed from fascination to sensation.
Who knows what awaits him in the next nine months at Duke. Nevertheless, college basketball has a bona fide star regardless of not yet having played a Division I game. The build-up for that media sensationalism (some of it clickbait, but a lot of justified due to Flagg’s obvious ability and potential) begins at this level, at these events. He’ll be a freshman that matters in a way nobody has since another Dukie: Zion Williamson. The best freshman in the country last season was Reed Sheppard, who was no doubt adored by Kentucky fans and a well-known talent … but he also only started five games because of John Calipari’s stubbornness. Even as the national freshman of the year, Sheppard was somehow a Kentucky one-and-doner/top-three NBA pick who nonetheless couldn’t break through to widespread national appeal.
Flagg will.
So, why am I bringing up Flagg in a July recruiting column when he’s no longer in high school? Because I just spent five days on the road talking to dozens of college coaches and NBA scouts, and here’s…
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