Kevin Love says he has a new phrase he wants to live by: “Plant trees and watch them grow.” Consider the Cooper Flag one of the next trees of love that won’t need a lot of help growing. Love and Flag are in the middle of a quick, but worthy, media tour. Flagg was awarded the Gatorade Male Player of the Year award at the 2024 ESPYs on Thursday, a feat Love achieved in 2007. This is just the beginning for the iconic Dukes signature flag, with the brand making even more waves next. a shocking performance LeBron James, Stephen Curry-led Team USA against the club, which is the favorite to win the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“Oh, that will translate,” Love told CBS Sports. “Just playing against future Hall of Famers, some guys who are some of the greatest players of all-time and the most decorated players of this generation and certainly the best. He’s very poised for his age. His demeanor. Speaking of, he studies the game, you can tell he has great people around him, great teammates that he cares about and it helps you in any situation and it’s not just a basketball award. “This is something that will help him at Duke and beyond.”
17-year-old, NBA veteran and projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft Grew up on opposite coasts, but they are bonded by their love and appreciation for one of the NBA’s all-time teams: the 1985-86 Boston Celtics. Love will go down as one of the best outlet passers in the history of the game, but he emulated the late, great Bill Walton, who won Sixth Man of the Year for Boston. Flagg is a born Celtics fan. Growing up in Newport, Maine, he didn’t have many choices.
“We had to drive a couple hours to an AAU tournament and we had a movie projector in our little Chrysler van that would come in the middle and we would watch the entire championship run of the 85-86 Celtics and watch it game by game, the whole thing over and over again. ,” Flagg told CBS Sports. “I think the way they played, the way they got the ball out quickly, moved it down the court, the dedication and unselfishness of that team, just accepting a role, doing the right things, getting their bodies on the line. But keeping it is the epitome of what it takes to be on a good team. Everyone has to sacrifice something. Playing the game right will get you further than just trying to do things you can’t. “Can’t do or help my team win has been invaluable to me.”
Flagg could only lean back and smile as Love described watching Boston’s outlet drill that initiated a typical transition offense. Of course, the Celtics could also play defense with a huge back-line featuring some combination of Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Larry Bird and Walton.
Flagg hopes to recreate that style of basketball at Duke this winter. Jon Scheyer has a new team fresh out of the incubator. Duke’s Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster are the only returning players in the starting backcourt. Flag is a big name, but Duke has 10 freshmen, On paper, Duke has a chance to become one of the best defensive teams in the country. But incorporating so many new faces defensively is not easy.
Still, the defensive upside for this group is off the charts. Freshman center Khaman Maluach is huge, standing at 7-foot-2 and 250 pounds. Duke added Syracuse transfer Malik Brown, who was one of the ACC’s best guards last season. Proctor is a terrific on-ball defender, and Ripley Tulane transfer Zion James is also a threat on that end.
Duke Foster could move into the starting lineup with a ho-hum, 6-foot-5, 200-pound guard who is the smallest player on the floor.
The flag is at the center of it all. He is considered one of the best defensive prospects ever seen in high school basketball. He is 6-foot-9, 200 pounds and is a queen on the chess board, with the ability to guard up and down the lineup and provide elite secondary rim protection.
Perhaps most importantly, it is extremely important for the flag to be exceptionally defensive. He flashes what might be Duke on that end of the floor.
“We have a lot of versatile guys defensively,” Flagg says. “We have such a long lineup. That doesn’t mean we’re not fast either. We have big guards that can sit and guard smaller guards. We’re going to be very versatile in the way we defend. we will do.” We can choose our locations and choose our coverage based on the way we want to be protected. I think we can be very strategic in the way we play defense this year. “I’m very excited to keep it going.”
The game has changed and Flagg’s ability to guard everyone defensively and pass, dribble and shoot is an example of that.
“For us, it was power forwards, small forwards and point guards,” Love said. “Now, people are like switching from 1 to 5 and do everything and play every position. People love to say the word ‘unicorn’ but you’re looking at it. The game is positionless, and we didn’t have that Past. I think that’s a beautiful thing, it shows that you’re never too good to work on your skills and you don’t have to work on literally everything.
“Looking at basketball and AAU at the grassroots level, whether it’s coaches or the entire ecosystem, I wish we had focused a lot more on skill work. You look at the European influence and how much better the European game has become, They don’t care about the rankings. They play two games a week, four games on a Saturday and sometimes five games on a Sunday. I wouldn’t say I felt like I left some things on the table in my career, but you think I wanted the skills to work and was hungry for more games. It’s top notch. It’s like going on a nice vacation. That’s what I want us to have.”
Flagg and Love have already gone their separate ways. Love is heading back to Miami to be Bam Adebayo’s backup big man, which he describes as “the best job in the world.”
As for Flagg, he’s looking for some measure of normalcy after the pomp and circumstance of the ESPYs in Los Angeles, competing against the best of the best in Las Vegas and, of course, his summer responsibilities at Duke. That’s a lot of flights.
But he has one more thing which he always cherishes.
Next month, Flagg will return home to host a basketball camp at the University of Maine (the place where his old Nokomis High School coach Earl Anderson wanted him to go for a year). Flagg and his brother, Ace, will lead the camp for boys and girls from first grade through sixth grade. The first season sold out so quickly and there was such great interest that they had to make a second season. That off-court work is a big part of why Gatorade chose Flagg as its Player of the Year.
“It means everything to me,” says Flagg. “Coming from a small town, knowing everybody. Having a very tight circle. We call it our home village. That’s been a support system from a young age. Being united, being close to all my people has been my “It’s helped people through so many things, so I’m really excited to go home and do something for the younger generation. I’m excited for the opportunity to stay home for a little while.”
This will be a well-deserved, short break. Maybe Flagg can hit the golf course again with his mentor and former AAU coach, Andy Bedard. But the spotlight isn’t leaving the flag any time soon. Duke’s season will be here before he knows it. The 2025 NBA Draft is less than a year away. Flagg hopes he won’t have to wait long to hear his name called, and that Love will be waiting in the NBA when he gets there.
“(Kevin Durant), Steph, LeBron are coming off their careers in the next few years and the game is in such a good shape,” Love said. “Looking at how much it’s changed since I was going to UCLA in 2007, it’s getting so much better. The level of talent domestically and abroad has leapt so far ahead. That’s why the TV deal was worth $76 billion. Those are ridiculous numbers. I’m excited for guys like Cooper and Cameron (Boozer) who are continuing to develop and take it to the next level.”
But is Love the best outlet passer in the game? Or does that title belong to Flagg’s beloved Celtics’ Walton?
Flagg says it’s love, but the vet won’t let it slide.
“Oh, Walton,” Love says, laughing. “This is not correct.”
Read more: Finding Flag, untold stories of Cooper Flag’s generational rise
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