Cooper Flagg played just two Summer League games before the Dallas Mavericks shut him down. The No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 NBA Draft averaged 20.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.

The energy was electric at Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday afternoon as the top two attractions from the 2025 NBA Draft squared off.

Former Dallas Mavericks governor Mark Cuban has great faith in Mavs rookie Cooper Flagg's future, so much so that he offered a comparison to late Los Angeles Lakers legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant regarding his potential development path while taking in Dallas' 87-85 summer league win over L.

After a disappointing NBA Summer League debut, Cooper Flagg didn't waste time rewriting the narrative. The Dallas Mavericks' No. 1 overall pick erupted for 31 points in just 31 min

Zachary Weinberger is a credentialed Miami Heat reporter and an Associate Editor covering the NBA at-large, NCAA Football, and NCAA Basketball for ClutchPoints. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University in 2022, covering sports at the FAU University Press and later at The Palm Beach Post.

“Y ou kind of have to think of the Kobe [Bryant] arc, ” former Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban told a small group of reporters. “It took him some time to get it right. I don’t want to curse him by comparing him to Kobe because they’re not the same. But Kobe didn’t come in right away as a polished player. It took him two years to get it.”