Cooper Flagg has long faced the spotlight as a top NBA prospect. It's time to do it at No. 7 Duke

DURHAM, N.C. -- Cooper Flagg wants to support things simple.

Basketball first. Treat nan other attraction and hype arsenic an afterthought, arsenic champion he tin anyway.

The versatile 6-foot-9, 205-pound guardant for No. 7 Duke arrived arsenic nan nation’s apical recruit and heads into nan play arsenic a imaginable No. 1 wide NBA draught pick. Hype is churning astatine pedal-to-floor velocity pinch his assemblage debut looming. Managing that will beryllium cardinal successful what is an all-but-certain azygous assemblage play for Flagg.

It wasn’t that agelong agone that Zion Williamson captured each camera arsenic Duke’s freshman star. Now it’s Flagg’s turn.

“As acold arsenic hype and each that goes, that’s thing that you study to woody with,” Flagg said. “For me, it’s astir conscionable playing basketball.”

The Blue Devils unfastened nan play Monday against Maine, Flagg's home-state program. But nan buzz successful Durham has rolled since Jon Scheyer won nan recruiting conflict pinch two-time reigning nationalist champion UConn to onshore Flagg.

The McDonald's All-American turned heads with his play against seasoned NBA stars during a July scrimmage connected nan U.S. Olympic team. He is only nan ninth freshman named to The Associated Press preseason All-American team that dates to nan 1986-87 season. And earlier this week, he became nan first men’s assemblage hoops subordinate to scope an endorsement woody pinch Gatorade.

All earlier he turns 18 (in December).

Scheyer, entering his 3rd play arsenic successor to retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski, doesn’t sound worried. He commends Flagg's attack successful practices and his activity ethic. The 37-year-old coach has seen it successful moments for illustration arriving astatine nan gym for a 6 a.m. workout only to find Flagg already shooting successful nan gym.

“He’s a assured player, a existent assured player, which is great,” Scheyer said. “But he wants direction. He wants to beryllium told erstwhile he’s not doing thing arsenic good arsenic he tin aliases arsenic difficult arsenic he can. And that’s blown maine away."

Flagg has a soft touch pinch his changeable and passing that useful successful catch-and-fire situations from 3-point range, disconnected nan dribble successful midrange aliases successful nan post. His magnitude allows him to sprout complete astir perimeter defenders and artifact shots astatine nan different end. But it's astir much than beingness skills.

"Everything that he does, it appears to me, is borne retired of trying to win, arsenic a competitor," said Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley, nan erstwhile Duke All-American constituent defender who sewage an up-close look astatine Flagg during an accumulation crippled past weekend. "That’s going to transportation him a agelong way. He’s sewage astonishing and divers skillsets and each that awesome stuff. But he plays pinch that occurrence astatine some ends of nan level that you look for.”

There is small mobility that Flagg’s crippled will construe to assemblage basketball, moreover as nan athletics features older and much developed players.

It’s managing everything else: nan dissection of each on-court moment, selfie and autograph requests, aliases simply eyes that get wider erstwhile spotting him successful public.

Associate caput coach Chris Carrawell has seen it before. The erstwhile Blue Devils teammate of large programme names for illustration Elton Brand, Jay Williams and Shane Battier returned to subordinate Krzyzewski’s unit successful clip for Williamson’s supernova 2018-19 season, filled pinch highlight-reel dunks and levels of attraction bordering connected spectacle connected his measurement to becoming AP nationalist subordinate of nan year and nan apical wide NBA draught pick.

“I won’t opportunity Cooper is astatine that level yet,” Carrawell said. “But I mean, this is really you know: erstwhile a non-basketball instrumentality asks you successful nan market store: ‘That Cooper Flagg feline …’ You’re like, ‘You don’t watch hoops each day!’ But they know, they cognize astir him.”

Andy Bedard, a erstwhile subordinate astatine Boston College and Maine, remembers really nan connection spread, too. Not astir Flagg arsenic nan NBA prospect; rather, it was astir nan standout youngster playing up aggregate property levels successful bluish Maine. Bedard, who knew Flagg's mother Kelly from her clip playing astatine Maine, soon sewage a look astatine Cooper's game.

“He was for illustration 3rd people playing successful a fifth- and sixth-grade league,” Bedard said. "You wouldn't cognize it because he was nan aforesaid tallness if not taller than everybody other moreover pinch that quality because he was large astatine an early age. But he was playing for illustration a guard. It wasn't ‘Go connected nan artifact and put it backmost in.’ Watching him move, I'm like, ‘Hmm, this is different.’”

Bedard went connected to shape nan AAU squad that would characteristic Cooper, his relative Ace, and Bedard's boy Kaden, and their families became close. That squad yet started beating nan different apical instate teams by lopsided margins earlier playing much games successful New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and connection began to dispersed astir Cooper's talent.

Bedard recalled erstwhile nan squad competed successful nan Nike Elite Youth Basketball League circuit 1 twelvemonth that tourney organizers arranged further information to thief negociate crowds. Flagg yet transferred from Maine's Nokomis Regional High School adjacent his hometown successful Newport to Florida's Montverde Academy to adjacent his prep career.

Bedard recalled really Flagg would play play and sometimes decorativeness a information to find group waiting astatine nan clubhouse to spot him.

“I conscionable return it arsenic a compliment, effort to beryllium respectful of everybody, moreover if I’m not successful nan champion temper aliases I’m not having nan champion day,” Flagg said. “People are wanting to spot you and wanting to support you. So I deliberation it’s conscionable handling that nan correct way, and past conscionable attraction connected basketball.”

Freshman helping Darren Harris described his classmate arsenic personification who “just tries to beryllium a normal kid." And successful a motion to nan added attraction that follows Flagg's each move, postgraduate guardant Mason Gillis — portion of Purdue's tally to nan NCAA title crippled past play — playfully applauded from nan backmost of nan room erstwhile Flagg wrapped up an question and reply pinch reporters.

“He's a awesome guy, handles his business, does things nan measurement he's expected to do them,” Gillis said. "I deliberation he has a batch of unit already and arsenic a 17-year-old, and he's handling it perfectly.”

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