Mavericks beat long odds, get first shot at Cooper Flagg in NBA draft

The ping-pong balls have spoken: Cooper Flagg might be headed to Dallas to start his NBA career, and a fan base that lost Luka Doncic this season might have a new star to cheer for.

The Mavericks won the NBA draft lottery on Monday night, giving them the No. 1 pick in next month’s draft — and the first chance to take Flagg, the freshman who led Duke to the Final Four in his lone college season and the consensus player of the year.

Dallas bucked huge odds to get it done, with only a 1.8% chance to win the lottery. 

A screaming Mark Cuban called new Mavericks governor Patrick Dumond — who was at his daughter’s track meet — with the news, and just like that, there’s something to root for in Dallas again after a tumultuous few months where Doncic got traded and the Mavs missed the playoffs.

A Mavs team that went to the NBA Finals last season, then scorned its fans by trading away Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, left the lottery with the biggest prize.

If Miami had lost in the play-in tournament, the Heat would have had the odds that the Mavericks ended up having — so if the ping-pong balls bounced the same way, they would have had the No. 1 pick.

Instead, it was Dallas’ night. And another Texas team nearly stole the show.

San Antonio, with back-to-back rookies of the year in Victor Wembanyama — the prize of the 2023 lottery — and Stephon Castle, will pick second. Philadelphia will pick third, and Charlotte will pick fourth.



(AP Photo Nam Y. Huh)