Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg has serious hops, but he’s hesitant to show off his high-flying ability in an exhibition contest. The teenage prodigy has ruled out his participation in the upcoming NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
“See, I don’t know if I can really compete,” Flagg said on Thursday when asked about entering the Dunk Contest, via The Dallas Morning News’ Mike Curtis.
“I’m more of an in-game dunker, so never say never, but yeah, I don’t know if I can really compete.”
Flagg, who’s making 0.9 threes per game at 27%, was jokingly asked about entering the NBA All-Star 3-Point Contest as a consolation for his fans.
“I don’t know about that, either,” he laughed. “I think we’ve got some better candidates on our team for sure — Max [Christie], Klay [Thompson].”
Following in LeBron James’ Footsteps
Flagg’s reluctance to enter the NBA Slam Dunk Contest isn’t exactly surprising. Ever since LeBron James refused to enter the All-Star weekend affair, other superstar players around the league have followed suit for the last two decades.
Back in 2004, James was asked if he’d follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan (1985) and Kobe Bryant (1997), both of whom entered the Dunk Contest as rookies. A rookie James refused to answer the question and did not explain his reasoning for years.
In subsequent years, very few All-Star-level players chose to enter the Dunk Contest. After Victor Oladipo in 2018, the trend was broken by Jaylen Brown in 2024. While Anthony Edwards has teased fans with his participation, he has yet to commit.
Cooper Flagg Cracks All-Star Voting
There’s no doubt Flagg will be bombarded with the same question for years, especially since he left the door open with a “never say never” in his quote.
The rising Mavericks star could very well crack the All-Star team by his second year, though. He’s the only rookie among 40 players who received votes in the second round of fan voting, coming in at No. 16 among all West players with 236,182 votes, above perennial All-Stars like Devin Booker (232,075) and Jimmy Butler III (208,900).
Flagg said he feels “blessed” to already have such a strong fanbase.
“Obviously to see that is really cool,” he said of the All-Star votes, via Mavericks.com’s Dwain Price. “I feel really honored and really blessed to see my name up there.
“I’m definitely surprised. Like I said, I feel really blessed and honored, so I’ll just keep trying to get better every day.”
Flagg said he discussed the merits of sharing a locker room with the NBA’s best players during a weekend of festivities with teammate Anthony Davis, a 10-time All-Star.
“I just talked to him [Davis] about him [playing in the All-Star game] and asked him what’s that’s like with the voting and everything,” Flagg said. “We just talked about it a little bit. Nothing crazy.
“He had so much experience with all that stuff. I’m just trying to learn from him.”
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