UNC legend Theo Pinson snubs Cooper Flagg for Pelicans star as best Duke freshman of all time

Cooper Flagg ended his freshman season at Duke as among the best rookies this system has ever seen. Flagg recorded averages of 19.2 factors, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists per sport, main the Blue Devils to the Ultimate 4 final season.

Nevertheless, the query stays: Is he the very best freshman Duke has ever had? All through historical past, a number of phenoms have come via Durham and electrified the school basketball world. Some names thrown round on this dialogue embody New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson, Jabari Parker, Marvin Bagley III and Jayson Tatum.

Theo Pinson, a former North Carolina and Brooklyn Nets star, weighed in on the talk together with his crew from the “To The Baha” podcast on Wednesday, calling the hype and “recency bias” surrounding Cooper Flagg “insane.”

“I do not give a f*** what occurs — even when Cooper wins that (nationwide championship) this yr,” Pinson stated (Timestamp: 0:38). “He ain’t f***ing with Zion Williamson out of Duke. Zion was a freak.”

“There are particular conditions the place nobody’s debating this Cooper Flagg-number-one-pick sort of factor. However you continue to check out Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, you recognize what I’m saying? You’re nonetheless taking that look. When Zion was popping out, it wasn’t even a query. Nobody was questioning who the No. 1 choose was.”

Pinson added that regardless of Flagg being the heavy favourite to be the highest choose within the upcoming NBA draft, the hole between him and different prospects shouldn’t be as extensive as many consider.

Duke legend Coach Ok selects Cooper Flagg as biggest freshman in program historical past

Legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has his choose for the best freshman to play for the Blue Devils. Throughout an interview on Sirius XM in April with Dusty Dvoracek and Danny Kanell, Coach Ok shared his ideas on a number of the greatest gamers to come back via Durham.

“Grant (Hill) is the very best participant to ever play at Duke. (Christian) Laettner is essentially the most completed,” Krzyzewski stated. “Cooper (Flagg) is unquestionably the very best freshman that has ever performed.”

What’s attention-grabbing is that Krzyzewski picked Cooper Flagg over Zion Williamson, whom he coached throughout his lone season again in 2018-19. On Wednesday, Cameron Salerno of CBS Sports activities put collectively his checklist of the highest freshmen in Duke’s historical past and had Williamson at No. 2 behind Flagg.

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Salim is a author at Sportskeeda overlaying Faculty Basketball. Salim holds a level in Civil Engineering and has two years of expertise writing about each NBA and Faculty Basketball. He has a knack for studying and is enthusiastic about searching for new data.

A basketball fanatic since his school days, Salim developed a love for the game via Stephen Curry and most just lately Luka Doncic has turn into his favourite participant. He began following school basketball after Angel Reese’s breakout season with LSU in 2022.

Other than basketball, Salim can be an enormous fan of soccer. As a lot as he enjoys watching video games, he’s additionally equally invested in taking part in the game.

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