NEED TO KNOW
- Cooper Flagg went No. 1 in the 2025 NBA Draft on Wednesday, June 25
- The 18-year-old former Duke star is now a member of the Dallas Mavericks
- Flagg tells PEOPLE that he’s “grateful and blessed” for the opportunities that have come his way
The Maine Event. “That kid from Duke.” No. 1 draft pick. A “Swiss army knife.” Too young to drink.
Those are the many ways to describe Cooper Flagg, but there’s one thing that the generational basketball talent — who was selected first by the Dallas Mavericks during the first night of the 2025 NBA Draft on Wednesday, June 25 — is not.
“I don’t think I’m a big spender, so there’s nothing really that I’m looking forward to buying or anything like that,” Flagg, 18, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview tied to his partnership with banking app Chime. “But I think it’s just cool to be able to make a good amount of money and just have that.”
Still, the low-key big man is riding Wednesday night’s high of being selected No. 1. “This is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a little kid,” he says. “So I’m just going through all these moments, being grounded, staying present, and just being grateful and blessed for this opportunity.”
Along for the ride, always, has been Flagg’s family: mom Kelly and dad Ralph, plus older brother Hunter. Cooper’s twin brother, Ace, will begin his college career at the University of Maine this fall, following in their mom’s footsteps.
The PEOPLE App is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more!
The family was emotional on Wednesday night: Dallas is a lot farther from Maine than Charlotte, N.C. or Washington D.C, whose teams both had better chances to land the No. 1 draft pick over the Mavericks, who beat the odds with a 1.8% chance of drafting him. But Kelly’s strategy is already in place.
“I will be around a lot, that’s my plan,” Kelly says about the Mavericks star, who doesn’t turn 19 until December. “Wherever Cooper goes, that’s where people will get used to seeing my face as well. He’s only 18 still and he’s still my baby, so I’m going to have a hard time letting him too far out of my sight.”
The devoted mom’s impact is seen in their new episode of the YouTube series Mama I Made It, in which they talk about money, and look back on all the sacrifices along the way.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Cooper — who reclassified so that he graduated high school a year early and then went to Duke — missed out on milestone events like prom, his mom said. “Even though there were sacrifices, I still enjoyed every minute of being with the team, being young and not really caring about anything else but winning,” he recalls in the series. “It’s all worth it.”
“Do not buy a Bugatti … right away,” Kelly jokes to him, after Cooper says he’s excited to get his first car. The mother of three adds to her youngest: “Some of the conversations lately we’ve had have been about roles. The importance of you being the CEO of your own business.”
At the Flagg headquarters in downtown Dallas, Cooper says he will have a level of comfort knowing that two of his Mavs teammates — Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II — are also Duke alums. “I think it’s cool obviously to have two that have kind of gone through the brotherhood and been through that system,” he tells PEOPLE.
“And I’ve known Dereck for a little while. He came back during the season and I was able to meet him and talked to him for a while. So it is obviously very cool to think about that and know that I could be playing with those guys,” Cooper continues.
As the newest Maverick gears up for summer league play and then his rookie season, he knows he’s positioned well to succeed. Headed to a franchise that is one year removed from the NBA Finals, Flagg will play alongside All-Stars like Irving and Anthony Davis and for a Hall of Fame coach in Jason Kidd, who happened to coin that “That Kid from Duke” nickname.
“I have a really good support system of people around me all the time and helping me make big decisions and things like that,” Cooper says. “They’re helping me make decisions now, prepare me, and get me ready for what’s to come.”
Read the full article here
