Cooper Flagg Full 2025 NBA Draft Media Day Press Conference Before Dallas Mavericks Pick No. 1
hello hello cooper can you just talk about what this moment is like to have your family and friends here and uh on the eve of the biggest uh moment of your career yeah I mean it’s incredible um to be here being these moments this is stuff I’ve dreamed about since I was a little kid so you know I think being here is surreal um I don’t think it’s really you know set in yet or anything but um you I’m just trying to go through each moment and just enjoy it about what they did and you knew hey I mean for me it’s just about being grateful you know I’m grateful for every opportunity I’ve been given um so no matter the outcome no matter what would have happened um you know no matter what happens tomorrow night for me it’s just about being grateful and just really enjoying the moment there’s there’s a lot of talk about joining Dallas you want just you know you’re not joining a team that’s rebuilding you’re joining a team that wants to make the playoffs with a lot of talent trade you know Davis you have Kyrie Irving what’s it like if they pick you to join a team with that much NBA talent already around us um yeah i think like you said you know situation that you know is able to win um be on a team trying to buy you know a ton of incredible players and people that have you know had careers like they’ve had I think it’ll be a really great experience if if that does happen so talk about your main roots and just coming from there being able to represent that state and how that’s built you into the band player you are yeah I think um you know being able to come from Maine like it is such a big part of me and who I am today um you know I carry that with me and I carry a lot of pride in that um you know sending that message that it doesn’t matter where you’re from and um and that sort of thing so just proving to the kids of Maine and even bigger than that kids from anywhere around the world that it doesn’t matter as long as you believe in yourself and you work hard cougar told you the take on the conversations with Duke and Lively and Kyrie i mean no I haven’t had that conversation at all so you know I’m just you know going through this process like everybody else you know I do my workout um and so I’m just gonna see what happens tomorrow night what they haven’t told you no I have not had that conversation no what the workout like in Dallas and what was your interaction with yeah I think it was it was an incredible visit for me and you know um workout to be able to go down there and see all the facilities and stuff um and you know to get in get in the gym and I got a good you know hour 15 workout in um you know a bunch of rebounders staff coaches player development guys you know got in and um were guarding me so to get some live reads and stuff in I think it was really really good to see and then you know I got to see some of the players work out after and you know um some of the guys in the team work out and kind of what they do so that was pretty cool question player now can you repeat that again yeah almost a year ago you were playing Sky okay hall of Famer how did that experience kind of shaped you yeah yeah i think um you know that experience of being able to go to USA thing on the select team was you know it was priceless for me you know it’s such a good learning experience for me to go there um learn from everybody um you know um there’s a ton of Hall of Fame players so I think I just took that as a huge learning experience and I tried to learn as much as I could um and I think now it’s just um that confidence I got from playing with them i know I can you know play my game and be who I am and I think I’ve gotten a lot better since then too so I’m just excited to you know be in this environment um and and be able to just do what I do do you remember where you were when graduated and what your reaction was cuz obviously that was huge NBA yeah I mean I I remember being with you know all my guys i think that was it might have been the night that we played UNCC um at home and we won that game and so we were all kind of hanging out um together and um I remember my teammate Darren Darren Harris he was the first one to see uh the the Shams post um and we just all started going crazy like it was just uh such a shock like it was crazy so Cooper I got a question um being from Maine do you like lobster um you know lobster isn’t my personal favorite um but you know a good Maine lobster roll um you know my trainer’s wife makes a really nice lobster roll I think is really good good thank you very much i appreciate it thank you sir good luck what do you think of Liam what do I think of Liam McNeely um he’s all right n Liam’s great um you know I miss playing with him a lot you know he’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with so um I miss playing with him yeah it’s crazy i think having you know the four guys from W include me so my three teammates from there and then um even my teammates from Duke you know I have seven people I know in the green room personally and I played with so I think I think it’s incredible you know to go through this experience with them like last night I’m hanging out with Kaman you know just talking to him about his whole experience and all the workouts he went through and stuff and just just catching up so it’s been incredible to have guys I can lean on and you know really spend some time with during this whole process yeah I think it’s you know it’s part of that brotherhood it’s part of the path you see and it’s kind of you know that’s something that drew me to Duke and you know watching Paulo watching Tatum like their path you know going through college dominating and then you know going on to the next level and having success as well so I think that’s part of the brotherhood that’s part of the attraction of Duke is um the way they’re able to develop guys and get them to the next level cooper [Music] I mean Coach Sh was incredible for me you know he’s with me every step of the way um through my recruitment um and then moving on to you know the whole year of just trusting me and we had a great relationship um I mean he’s just been such a resource for me of reaching out uh to different people and you know setting me up and connecting me with a lot of really great people at Barclays uh no I haven’t what is the billboard new Balance oh the New Balance one yeah okay yeah yeah the one at the new store is incredible um I did see that yesterday um I mean it was incredible i got to go over there um and do like a a little meet and greet with a bunch of kids and stuff um you know that’s the sort of thing that I love to do you know it’s just so much fun to be able to see you know joy on a bunch of kids face and you know see people get excited um and that sort of thing so that was a really cool experience and environment for me to go to and you know have a have a good time college uh overall pick um just describe the emotion you’re feeling as you’re going through this process yeah I mean it’s surreal that’s that’s the word I would use to describe how I’m feeling um I don’t know if it’s all set in yet and whatnot but I’m just trying to enjoy it you know take it one day at a time and really just really just soak it all in what would the uh the young Cooper kind of criss-crossing Maine in a minivan maybe watching Boston Celtics DVDs what what would you have thought to be in this position right now considering how much you had to prove yourself as Yeah um I don’t know what he would say i don’t know if he would believe it i don’t know if he would you know think I was lying but I mean it’s just so crazy um it all happened so fast like you know it never really became real for me until you know two years ago when I got to my bird was when it really started to become a real thing for me so I think um you know it’s just such a surreal feeling seeing where I came from and you know what I’ve been able to do so many people talk about your versatile skill set but also your maturity your basketball like you and also your studio team just where does that stem from and you’re only 18 but but you carry yourself like um I mean I think just trying to grow up fast um I mean I left home to to go to Malver when I was 15 years old um so just trying to grow up fast um I feel like IQ wise on the court like I’ve always had like a knack for that sort of thing and just making making reads at a high level but um I think just trying to grow up as fast as I can and you know I have a really tight circle of people around me and that influence me and my decisions and I think that’s what’s helped me you know be mature and and stay grounded being a two-way player how how do you feel about joining a team that’s Yeah I mean I think for me it’s that’s always been a a huge part of my game and who I am is just being a a two-way guy and um no matter where I end up or where I go that that’s going to be my mindset of just you know being a two-way threat all the time people that you are NBA future star do you feel motivational can you say that again people say you are NBA future star so you feel like more like motivational pressure uh it’s definitely a lot of motivation there’s a little bit of pressure i feel like that comes with that and you know you get all the media and you know people having opinions on you and your life and everything about you um it’s definitely tough but I think for me it’s a lot of motivation you know hearing people say good things um even bad things you know hearing people talk about you is a good thing no matter what so um you know I’m excited about everything you know and just trying to soak it in cooper you talked about the Luca trade we talked about the Luca trade a couple minutes ago that’s a Dallas fan base when that happened and then they wanted to start thinking about the muscle coming back what would your message be to the city of Dallas about how appreciative you are maybe of how excite excited they are for you and just in general your message fans on what to expect yeah I mean I’m not on social media too much and I think like I said earlier I’m just trying to take it one day at a time um so if that is the case tomorrow um that ends up happening i mean um I’ve heard it’s an incredible fan base with um incredible support so I’ll be excited to to learn more about it and get get down there cooper say there’s pressure falling back in Dallas if you guys go that direction would you look at it that way as being something like you got to step into his shoes as a franchise player or would you look at it differently um I wouldn’t look at anything as pressure i think you know me going into whatever situation I go into I’m just going to try and be myself um all the time and I’m going to push myself to be better and better every single day and um you know make the most out of every day you know I’m not worried about living up to certain players expectations or or or things like that i’m just going to be myself um and really just try and get better every single day that I can what would it mean to you if the entire Duke starting five gets drafted um I mean that would be incredible you know that’s what I’m hoping to you know see happen over the next couple days and um I think that would be incredible i think everybody you know deserves it the five of us obviously Kaman and Khan um I hear their names called tomorrow night um but as far as Tyrese and Seion I think um I think they’ve helped themselves a lot through this whole process and um more than the outside and the public sees I think they have a really good chance of hearing their names called and and joining a team cooper how does it the way it ended with getting so close to the national championship falling short does that is that going to stick with you i mean how do you process it now a couple months later yeah I mean you know you have to take your wins in stride and you have to take your losses you know in the same stride so it’s just you know going through everything you got to learn how to how to you know deal with losses and learn from it so you know I’m just going to I always remember it obviously of you know having that let down and you know the loss ending the way it did but um it’s not something that you know I’m going to you know hold over my head and you know continue to you know be completely worried about but it’s something that I’m going to just you know use to to grow from and learn from the rest of my life for sure can you talk about what Matt McKenzie has meant to you since young age to now yeah Matt McKenzie um that’s my basketball trainer um so man he’s been with me since I was in fourth grade um just you know skill development stuff like that um and he knows my game really well so he’s been with me every step of the way um was on my AU coaching staff and um he’s really um just helped get me to who I am you know I wouldn’t be the player I am without him so I think having a guy like that that has been with me um for such a long time is such a privilege for me to you know have somebody that’s been so committed to me so when people refer to you as a prodigy or a generational talent how do you think about that how do you respond to that i think kind of like I said earlier about um expectations and you know I don’t owe myself to other people’s expectations or what people want to see about you know from me or or what they say so for me it’s I’m going to play to my expectations of myself and that’s just being as good as I can you know trying to impact the game in as many ways on every given play so I’m just trying to be an impact player on the court um and I’m just trying to get better every single day it seems like it’s a yearly occurrence that Mont players are getting trapped over there what is it about the program talent or the competition on a daily basis what is it about it that makes this coach um I mean I think coach boy brought in some pretty good talent i think that’s where it starts he had some pretty good players and um and that sort of thing but I think also um they had a good system of you know preparing guys for the next level um getting guys ready for college so that um guys are ready to go in right away and have an impact cooper had a chance to be the youngest number one pick since why was it priority for you to get into this class and sort of when did you have planned to be in the 25 class rather than trying I think um I think it’s like a quote my mom likes to say a lot you know if you’re the you’re the best player in the gym that you need to find a new gym so for me it was about um thinking about what I had left to do in high school and you know how much that would push me to to you know become a better player so for me that decision wasn’t too hard um you know after going undefeated with that team and or no it was before that so I kind of knew that we’re going to have a really really good team and then the next year would kind of be a fall off of you know um the competition and things like that so I kind of um just made that decision based on that i felt like it was time for me to kind of get to a new environment and push myself to to higher levels and to really just um get in a new environment and be surrounded by you know really great players curry what did you like about the New Balance shoe how did they that process yeah I mean I think the the connection with New Balance um is deeper than just the product and and the look and things like that i think it’s it’s as deep as you know the the culture that they have in their company and and brand and um you know the family culture and oriented way that they operate um I think you know having connections to New England and you know factories in Maine and and those ties were really important to me um as well as you know the shoe looking really nice and um you know just really loving the product that they have the name of what shoe i don’t have a shoe um so I I have I’ll wear a bunch of different models uh the Hezi lows the two-ways um probably wear some kay um that I’ve been wearing and I like a bunch of different shoes but I don’t have a personal shoe in your visit in your visit to Dallas what’s something you learned about the organization uh I mean I learned I learned a lot i learned a lot about you know the people down there i learned a lot about the facilities um learned a lot about the guys i was able to have dinner with some of the guys um on the team so I mean that was just a really good experience um it was a great learning trip cooper whatever do you want to see on your first NBA game court side um that’s a good question um I don’t know if you count Larry Bird as a celebrity um but that would be really cool uh no i don’t have a favorite rapper what did you like so much when you were a kid about her and his game i think just the things he was about um the way he played so hard on every possession the way he you know was diving on the floor you know doing all the little things um that’s kind of just the way I modeled my game when I was younger um and that sort of stuff so I think that’s kind of why um I play the way I am you know I didn’t have to give credit to that of just modeling myself after him and the way he was able to play and things he was able to do cooper there’s a lot of draft parties in Maine for tomorrow night um if you could say something to the people back home yeah I mean I’m blessed you know to have such a supportive you know state and and people back home that support me so much so I’m just truly blessed and you know I’m grateful for everybody that’s going to show up you know the parties and you know celebrating my name how do you want to score your first NBA um maybe dunking on somebody i thought that would be pretty cool uh come on come on Mom that’s my form see me i feel like that’d be pretty cool two more for Cooper guys two more um yeah if I’m if I’m lucky enough to you know um get a chance to to be in Texas i think some incredible teams some really good teams i’m looking at next year so um I think it’s I think it’s I think it’s amazing what do you think will be going through your mind or what have you thinking about as commissioning when you’re walking up here i mean it’s been a journey for you yeah i don’t know what’s going to go through my mind um my mind will probably be racing you know going 100 miles an hour i’ll probably think about every little thing um but I’m going to try my best to slow down you know enjoy the moment and just soak it all in were you a guy that’s been described as position how do you position your level yeah I think positionless is a great is a great way to put it you know I’ll do whatever you know coach wants me to do i’ll play any role um so for me it’s about just doing a ton of different things on the court running like I said earlier just being an impact player you know impacting both sides of the ball at a high level and impacting winning at a high level so whether that’s you know getting it off the you know off the rim on rebound and pushing in transition um that’s something I feel like I can do at a high level um so I would love to do that um or if it’s playing off ball you know cutting slashing um spotting up you know I’m I’m ready to do whatever um whatever that may
Full media day press conference with projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft. Flagg discusses his workout with the Dallas Mavericks, what it would mean to join Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, his reaction to the Luka Dončić trade, and representing his home state of Maine. He also reflects on Duke’s season, his training with Matt McKenzie, and what it means to be called a generational talent.
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