Meet Cooper Flagg, the 17-year-old No. 1 NBA Draft prospect who made history and prepared LeBron James for the Paris Olympics

COOPER Flagg looks set to be the NBA’s next big thing.

The 6-foot-9 forward will turn 18 just days before LeBron James celebrates his 40th birthday in late December.

3

3

But they’ve already faced off on the court with Flagg helping Team USA prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics at a minicamp in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Maine native — who will play for Duke this fall — has been the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft for a while.

He earned the label of generational talent even before leading Montverde Academy to a 33-0 record and a national title this year, averaging 16.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 steals ball and 2.7 blocks.

Flagg is developing into a triple-double threat who can make an impact on both ends of the court.

No wonder USA Basketball thought his talents could be useful to Team USA and asked the forward to use James and company in pre-Olympic training camp as part of the selected team.

“I was quite surprised just because it’s not a normal thing,” Flagg he said of the invitation, which he received in a call with the executive director of the US team, Grant Hill.

Flagg became the first college player to make the select team – typically made up of young NBA stars – since Marcus Smart and Doug McDermott in 2013.

At the time, though, Smart had just won Big 12 Player of the Year honors in his freshman year at Oklahoma State, while McDermott had earned back-to-back consensus All-American honors after 110 games with Creighton.

Meanwhile, Flagg wrestled for the United States national team three months before making his college basketball debut.

That didn’t stop him from “killing it”, as the team’s selected coach, Jamahl Mosley, said.

Social media clips of the Duke freshman torching NBA superstars in Monday’s exhibition game quickly went viral.

They showed him knocking down 3s over Anthony Davis, getting Jrue Holiday tangled in his handles and finishing a putback over Bam Adebayo for an and-1.

All three earned All-Defensive honors in 2023-24.

After a close game, Team USA finally achieved a 74-73 victory.

Remarkably, Flagg’s teammates—all of whom had previously played in the NBA—continued to seek him out in an attempt to defeat the Olympians.

“To be able to do what he did, not even play a college game, let alone an NBA game, there is no fear,” said Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., who played for the select team.

“It’s relentless. And what you can say about him is that he simply has the talent and the will to win.

“He doesn’t need the ball. He just finds a way to it. And the ball comes to him.

“That’s something you can’t teach. He just has a great feel for the game.”

Flagg told his father, Ralph — who attended the three-day scrimmages in Las Vegas — that he was a little surprised when he stepped onto the floor to see that he was protecting James.

The basketball prodigy wasn’t overwhelmed for long – proving that he simply belonged.

“He said, ‘OK, I think we’re going to start doing this,'” Ralph Flagg remembered.