We’re as excited about Cooper Flagg as anyone. He’s had a crazy year, doing things that no one reasonably expected him to do this early. He was expected to be an elite defender, but his offensive game developed far beyond most expectations.
However, when it comes to the arguments you’ll find in this article, we have to agree with Stephen Jackson and disagree with the Morris twins, Markieff and Marcus, who believe Flagg may be the best white American player of all time and suggest he could surpass Larry Bird.
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Jackson can’t go there, and neither can we. Flagg is having an incredible rookie season, and he has the potential to be the best player in the league – but he’s not quite there yet, and comparing him to Bird – or anyone, really – is a big question.
For that matter, narrow it down a bit and look at the best white players in the world today. You could start with Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Chet Holmgren, Domantas Sabonis, Franz Wagner and, of course, Con Knuupel.
You could argue that Flagg is better than Holmgren, Sabonis, Wagner and Knuupel right now, but it’s harder to say with Doncic and Jokic.
Jokic is arguably the best player in the world, and while Doncic is nowhere near the guard that Flagg is, only a fool would say he’s not a great player.
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Does Flagg have the potential to be better than all of these guys?
Yes, he does.
And Bird?
Byrd is a unique historical figure. Joe Dumars summed him up best when he called him a basketball prodigy. He has a supernatural gift that enables him to do some incredible things. Watch some of the videos and you’ll see his incredible intelligence on the game and his keen understanding of how to psychologically destroy his opponents.
Flagg is already good and has a chance to be the greatest player of all time, but is he better than Bird? He is not there and may never be there because Bird is monster.
You don’t have to take our word for it. We’re pretty sure if you asked his mom, she’d agree when she talks about his immense potential and incredible accomplishments at 19 years old. She plays games. She gave Cooper and his brothers a DVD of the ’86 Celtics to watch on the long trip from Newport, Maine, to AAU events in New England. She knew how great Bird was and how incredible his talent was, and she wanted them to learn from him and follow his example because Bird and that team played some of the purest basketball in the world.
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That said, she probably understood that while her son couldn’t do what Bird did, Bird never had the raw physical talent of Flagg, and Flagg had a chance to leave his mark on basketball like Hick, who came out of French Lick, once did.
He won’t be the next Bird, but if Flagg works as hard as Bird, he also has a chance to become a historical figure in the game, a chance to win an NBA championship and an MVP award, a chance to define his own greatness.
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