Former NBA player Brian Scalabrine on the Mavericks' Cooper Flagg: 'I've never seen anything like it'
Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg and former NBA player Brian Scalabrine, inset. Credit: Getty Images/Stacy Revere; Elsa
Brian Scalabrine will never forget the first time he saw Cooper Flagg.
Scalabrine, the former NBA forward, received a call from a trainer he knew named Matt Mackenzie, claiming he was working with a 13-year-old kid who could hold his own against players at the University of Maine. Scalabrine was very skeptical, but invited Flagg down to play a pickup game against him and some of the best AAU players in the Boston Area just to see.
“He was the best player on the floor. It wasn’t even close,” Scalabrine, a co-host of "The Starting Lineup" on SiriusXM, told Newsday on Tuesday. “This is a kid who got out of a car after a four-hour drive to go play pickup. And he was unbeatable.
“I told him, you are making it to the NBA. I don't know if you are playing 20 years or five years. I don’t know if you are a Hall of Famer or role player. But you are going to the NBA.”
Fast forward five years and Flagg is 15 games into an NBA career that many believe will be long and storied even if it has gotten off to an uneven start.
Flagg, who plays the Knicks in Dallas for the first time Wednesday, was labeled a generational talent when the Mavericks took him with the No. 1 overall pick this summer. Although No. 1 picks don’t usually go to good teams, the Mavericks (4-11) have been nothing short of a disaster.
Less than a month into the season, the team fired general manager Nico Harrison after it finally became apparent to ownership that his trade of Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick in 2029 was as bad as everyone else in Dallas thought it was. Davis, who has suited up for just 14 regular-season games since being acquired by Dallas, is currently out with a calf injury. Kyrie Irving has yet to play this season as he recovers from a torn ACL.
That leaves the 18-year-old Flagg, averaging 15.5 points on 45.5% shooting with 6.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.2 turnovers, as the team’s top offensive weapon.
The 6-9 Flagg’s season got off to a slow start after coach Jason Kidd decided to use him as point guard. The experiment ended after seven games during which Flagg averaged 13.6 points and shot 38.8% . Since moving back to forward, Flagg is averaging 17.3 points while shooting 50.4.
Shortly before scoring 21 points in an overtime win over Portland on Sunday, Flagg conceded he had struggled in his role as the primary ball-handler.
"It's a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibility that comes with being a point guard," Flagg said. "I don't know if I was ready to handle that right off the bat. I tried my best and that's not to say I can't go back to it and I can't work on it and get better. I think it's just worked out lately where it's been better to have somebody else help and relieve pressure. It doesn't mean I can't bring it up and initiate offense."
Flagg addressed his recent success and provided a candid response about his struggles at point guard following Friday's double-overtime loss to the Clippers.
"It's a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibility that comes with being a point guard," Flagg said. "I don't know if I was ready to handle that right off the bat. I tried my best and that's not to say I can't go back to it and I can't work on it and get better. I think it's just worked out lately where it's been better to have somebody else help and relieve pressure. It doesn't mean I can't bring it up and initiate offense."
Scalabrine helped send Flagg on the path to the NBA by calling both Duke and USA Basketball after that initial pickup game to tell them about the unknown kid. The two remain close and Scalabrine recently sent Flagg a text to tell him that the adversity in Dallas is going to make him a better player in the long run.
“Cooper is exactly where he’s supposed to be,” Scalabrine said. “Everyone wants to know when he is going to be Cooper Flag and all this stuff. His greatest strength is he’s a super computer. He learns at a rate that most people can’t. Whatever struggles he goes through now, wait until Jan. 1.
Scalabrine said that why many budding stars make their big jump from year one to year two, he believes that Flagg will do it in the middle of his first season.
“Judge Cooper Flagg in 2026. Call 2025 a learning experience. Jan. 1 to the end of the season, watch what he does," Scalabrine said. "Watch his reads, watch his stats, watch his processing. It will be night and day. He’s an absolute super computer. He’s AI when it comes to basketball players. He learns so quickly. Picks things up really fast.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
