NBA Draft 2025: Dallas signs exceptional talent Cooper Flagg as No. 1 pick

New York. The 18-year-old basketball talent Cooper Flagg will play for the Dallas Mavericks. As expected, Dirk Nowitzki's former team selected Flagg with the first overall pick in the NBA draft in New York. Of all the number one picks in NBA history, only LeBron James was slightly younger than the forward, who spent a year as a college player at Duke and was the team's best in all key statistics. In Dallas, Flagg is expected to succeed Luka Doncic, whom the Texans surprisingly parted ways with at the beginning of the year.

In the NBA Draft, teams are allowed to select talent in order. The worse a team performed in the previous season, the higher the probability of being selected early. The final order is determined based on these probabilities. That the Dallas Mavericks were allowed to make their selection first was a big surprise. The team had only a theoretical chance of 1.8 percent. In Dallas, Flagg will play alongside established NBA stars Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and Klay Thompson.

The San Antonio Spurs selected Dylan Harper as their second overall pick. VJ Edgecome was selected third overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. Frenchman Noa Essengue, who was keen to be present at the draft in person and will therefore miss his current club ratiopharm Ulm's decisive fifth game of the German championship final series against FC Bayern Munich, was selected twelfth overall by the Chicago Bulls. Essengue was the second-youngest player in the draft after Flagg.

RND/dpa