"Another Zion coming lol": Fans clown Cooper Flagg for playing the humble card about NBA Draft

Modified Apr 06, 2025 16:45 GMT

NCAA Basketball: Final Four National Semifinal-Houston at Duke - Source: Imagn — Cooper Flagg is projected to be the No. 1 pick (Credits: IMAGN)

Cooper Flagg and Duke's dream season came to an end on Saturday night. The Blue Devils led for most of the game before the Houston Cougars stormed right back to secure a 70-67 win and advance to the championship game.

Flagg scored 27 points with seven rebounds, four assists, two steals, three blocks and three three-pointers, but it wasn't enough to keep his team afloat. He also missed a go-ahead jumper with nine seconds left to play.

Cooper Flagg is still projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and when asked about that, the star forward claimed that he would be honored to play in the league, regardless of which team takes him.

Needless to say, it didn't take long before his words went viral, and the fans didn't buy his words.

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"Another Zion coming lol 😂 All hype just to be mid asf gonna be average 10/5/3," a fan said.

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"So the “I wanna stay another year” was cap," one fan said.

"Good guy Cooper didn't want to upset the Washington Wizard fanbase," another fan said.

Other fans weren't that optimistic about his future:

"Another career soon to be wasted in DC," one fan said.

"Dw bro you’re a hornet next year we got plans for you," another fan said.

"Won’t be saying that if he gets drafted by the Utah Jazz," one fan said.

Exec compares Cooper Flagg to Jayson Tatum

Cooper Flagg has drawn comparisons to Kevin Garnett and Andrei Kirilenko, as he's got the shooting skills of a forward and the defensive prowess and length of a big man.

However, according to an unnamed Western Conference executive. he's actually more similar to another former Blue Devil, Jayson Tatum:

“Both of them at Duke presented really positively as guys that were going to have a couple of off-ramps to be super successful,” the exec told ESPN. “We’re seeing that with Flagg recently, he’s had poor shooting nights like against [Alabama in the Elite Eight], and still was super impactful [toward] winning. People questioned both of their shots, which turned out to be a silly concern, probably. They both have really good feel offensively in a way that’s just uncommon for their size and usage.”

You can't do wrong if you're drawing comparisons to Tatum or Garnett, and while he's still got to prove himself with the pros, he's one of the most promising and well-rounded prospects we've seen in the past decade or so.

About the author

Ernesto Cova is a journalist at Sportskeeda with a PhD in Sports Psychology. His education helped him develop a clearer understanding of the sports world as a whole, including basketball. Ernesto has over eight years of experience in the field, working for Fadeaway World, The Inquisitr, NBA Blast, The Cold Wire and Bolavip, among others.

His favorite team is the Chicago Bulls because of the Michael Jordan era. Jordan is Ernesto's all-time favorite, as he changed the game forever. Ernesto's second favorite was Kobe Bryant because he embodied that same competitive fire and Ernesto watched him play throughout his entire career. Nowadays, Ernesto really likes Stephen Curry, who he believes to be the most influential player of the past 15 years or so.

Ernesto's favorite basketball moment was when Venezuela -- his country -- took down Canada to take home the 2015 FIBA Americas Cup.

When not watching or writing about basketball, Ernesto likes to read and is interested in photography.

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Edited by nagpaltusharn25