Cooper Flagg, Savior, Conspiracy: 18-year-old mega-talent must heal an entire city

Nowitzki's replacement and Doncic's successor: Cooper Flagg is just 18 years old and shoulders a heavy burden with the Dallas Mavericks. An earthquake sweeps the NBA teenager to Texas, and now he must fight against conspiracy theories and for redemption.

On a Saturday night in early February, everything fell apart. The Dallas Mavericks sent Luka Doncic, their megastar and one of the faces of the NBA, to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for the aging and injury-prone Anthony Davis. It was a trade of seismic proportions. An earthquake that sent a shockwave through the entire NBA because no one could understand how anyone could have given up such an exceptional basketball player. Several NBA experts are calling it the "most shocking trade of all time."

Cooper Flagg and his teammates from the Duke University basketball team are celebrating their home victory against rival North Carolina that evening. At one point, a player pulls out his cell phone and, in disbelief, reads the blockbuster news aloud. "I remember being with all my guys," Flagg says at NBA Draft media day. "We all went crazy. It was such a shock."

Little did Flagg know at the time that Doncic's departure would soon shape the beginning of his own NBA career. In the draft midway through this week, the 18-year-old will be selected first overall by Dallas. Flagg is now a Maverick. The Maverick. The great promise for the present and future that Doncic once was. The footsteps the teenager is following in could hardly be bigger – for extremely emotional reasons. Because for many in Dallas, Doncic was and still is everything.

Flagg to Dallas because of Doncic earthquake

The fact that the Mavs were able to acquire Flagg is directly related to the blockbuster trade in February. The Texans are slipping without Doncic and, one year after reaching the NBA Finals, finish the season with a 39-43 record. After the loss in the NBA play-in tournament against the Memphis Grizzlies, their run is over. The worst teams in the league have the best chances in US sports of picking up the best college players in the draft. According to ESPN, the Mavs have a mere 1.8 percent chance of winning the so-called lottery, the fourth-lowest odds of all lottery winners. But Dallas pulls off the impossible, receiving the first pick and snagging the mega-talent Flagg.

When Doncic arrived in Dallas for the first time in April with his new team, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Mavs showed a tribute film lasting several minutes on the oversized video cube in the arena right before kickoff. The young Slovenian initially fought it off, hiding under a towel, but then tears welled up in his eyes. He allowed the emotions to show; his lower lip trembled, fans in the stands wept. Dirk Nowitzki stood and applauded.

Dallas loves Doncic and vice versa. Probably forever. During his more than six seasons with the Mavs, he wore cowboy hats, drove big trucks, and provided countless highlights in crucial game situations. The wound his trade opened has still not healed. The emotional connection will never completely fade. The fans will not forget: When the Mavericks hosted a draft watch party at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on Wednesday to cheer on new signing Flagg on the TV, the fans in the arena erupted into "Fire Nico" chants. These have become standard in Dallas because general manager Nico Harrison was responsible for the Doncic trade.

"He is something very special"

The exceptional talent Flagg now has to shoulder this immense pressure and emotional burden. But he could let the anger subside and heal the fans. And he could do it with titles in the coming years. The 18-year-old has what it takes; after Nowitzki and Doncic, he will become the next face of the franchise.

Flagg—206 centimeters tall, sporting a few teenage pimples on his face and a bit of beard fuzz—was already being touted as a future NBA superstar due to his high school success before he enrolled at Duke University last year. Then, as a freshman, he led his varsity team to a 35-4 regular season record and a run to the NCAA Final Four. "Cooper Flag is a true pro," ESPN analyst Stephan A. Smith asserts. "He has the whole package. He's something special."

Flagg impresses on the court with the defensive prowess that Doncic often lacked, even if he's more reserved than the feisty Slovenian. But in the game, the teenager is extremely tenacious and offers tremendous versatility – both offensively and defensively. LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar, praises him in his podcast "Mind the Game": "He's a kid who can do so many things on the basketball court, whether with the ball in his hands or not. He's super athletic, and his jump shot will only get better."

LeBron James is the biggest Flagg fan

James is certain: Flagg will be "amazing." Great, stunning, astonishing. The "King" has long been a self-proclaimed Flagg fan and knows the immense expectations and pressure, having also entered the league as an 18-year-old, straight out of high school, and as "the chosen one." He also speaks about the new Mavs star's game from experience: Last summer before the Olympics, Flagg, as a 17-year-old member of the USA Basketball Select Team, the only player under 21 on a roster of rising NBA stars, played as a sparring partner against the US team featuring James, Stephen Curry, and company. Flagg sometimes looked like the best player on the court. "He played extremely well," James now admits.

Now Flagg joins a Dallas team with an excellent base. A team with veterans and leaders like Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and Klay Thompson. "They'll give him basketball IQ and help him develop his own blueprint for the NBA," says James. Are the Mavs an immediate title contender with the rookie? Will they immediately win the first championship since Nowitzki to appease the fans?

"Absolutely not this year," says NBA expert Nick Wright on Fox Sports. After all, the teenager has to get used to the men's league first, and Irving, who had ACL surgery in March, will be out for at least a large part of the season. "But next season, Dallas can compete for the title," says Wright. Especially with Davis being injury-prone and Irving already in his mid-30s, Flagg will likely have to shoulder a lot of responsibility quickly.

Conspiracy theories and emotional burden

And he may have just saved the Mavericks from a truly dark time. He can't make the Texans forget Luka Doncic, but the rather shy teenager now has to prove that he can handle not only basketball but also the many sideshows in the NBA. The emotional burden Doncic left behind in Dallas. The healing of an entire city.

Or even conspiracy theories surrounding his draft. Because when the Mavs were awarded the first pick, social media immediately suspected a conspiracy, without any evidence, that the NBA had rigged the lottery to send Flagg to Dallas as Doncic's replacement. "I don't know what to say to that," Flagg laughed, at least quite calmly, in the days leading up to the draft. "I don't have any inside information, if that's what you mean. But I'm just grateful for how everything turned out."