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Cooper Flagg side-eyes Nico Harrison after mention of Luka Doncic at intro press conference

Nick Profile Picby: Nick Geddes06/27/25NickGeddesNews
Cooper Flagg
Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Cooper Flagg couldn’t make it through his introductory press conference with the Dallas Mavericks without Luka Doncic‘s name getting brought up. The two will forever be linked to each other after general manager Nico Harrison stunned the NBA world by trading Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 2.

But the focus was to be on Flagg — the No. 1 overall selection in Wednesday’s NBA Draft — on Friday. That is, until a question came up about Flagg becoming the next face of the franchise, following in the footsteps of Doncic and before him, Dirk Nowitzki. Immediately after hearing Doncic’s name in the question, Flagg appeared to give the side-eye to Harrison before answering.

“I’m coming in just trying to learn and try to get better every single day,” Flagg said, via TMZ Sports. “I think if I can do that to the best of my ability, I think expectations and pressures that other people will put on me and our team will kind of work itself out. I’m just trying to come in and be the best that I can be and just win at the highest level.”

Cooper Flagg facing high NBA expectations after productive season at Duke

Harrison has taken as many bullets as possible from the Mavericks fanbase since trading Doncic for a package headlined by All-Star forward Anthony Davis. You would think some of that would have subsided after Dallas won the NBA Draft Lottery despite having just a 1.8% chance of winning it. And yet, fans chanted “Fire Nico” at the team’s draft watch party at the American Airlines Center. Whether fair or not, Flagg will be compared to Doncic throughout his NBA career.

“I wouldn’t look at anything as pressure,” Flagg previously said of following Doncic. “I think me going into whatever situation I go into, I’m just going to try to be myself all the time and I’m going push myself to be better and better every single day and make the most out of every day. I’m not worried about living up to certain players’ expectations or things like that.”

Flagg won the Wooden Award, along with being a Consensus All-American, ACC Player of the Year, and making the All-NCAA Tournament team in his lone season at Duke. He averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 37 games. Flagg shot just over 48% from the field and 38.5% from three.

Flagg, Davis and Kyrie Irving make up the newest big three in Dallas. Certainly, not a bad situation for a No. 1 pick with high expectations.