Dallas Mavericks star and Maine native Cooper Flagg won NBA Rookie of the Year on Monday.
The No. 1 overall pick this season held off Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel, the No. 4 overall pick and Flagg’s former teammate at Duke.
Flagg received 56 first-place votes and 412 total points in the voting. Knueppel got the other 44 first-place votes and finished with 386 points. The NBA said it was the second-smallest gap since the current voting format began in 2002-03, beaten only by 2021-22 when Toronto’s Scottie Barnes edged Cleveland’s Evan Mobley by five first-place votes and 15 points
Flagg, a 6-foot-9 forward, averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals in 70 games this season. He is the first rookie to lead his team in those four categories since Michael Jordan in 1984-85.
The 6-6 Knueppel averaged just behind Flagg in those major categories with 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 0.7 steals in 81 games, but he shot 42.5% on 3-pointers compared to Flagg’s 29.5.
The other main argument in favor of Knueppel centers on team performance. Charlotte went 44-38 and nearly made the playoffs, reaching the final play-in game of the Eastern Conference, while Dallas went 26-56 to finish 12th in the Western Conference in a dismal season.
The Mavericks effectively started tanking after trading 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis to Washington on Feb. 4.
Flagg was the prohibitive favorite to win Rookie of the Year for most of the season. Knueppel made a late surge to favorite status amid the Hornets’ postseason push before Flagg swung the odds back in his favor by scoring 51, 45 and 33 points in three of his final six games.
Story by Jim Barnes, Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.
