NBA Voters Land on Right Side of NBA History with Mavericks' Cooper Flagg's ROTY Vote

The NBA announced on Monday night that Cooper Flagg won the Rookie of the Year award, ending months of debate.

Cooper Flagg exceeded expectations for the Dallas Mavericks in his rookie season. He may have been the first overall pick, but no one saw the season he had coming: 21.0 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 4.5 APG. He was also extremely active defensively, totaling 2.1 stocks per game.

You'd think a season like that would've run away with Rookie of the Year. It was anything but. Flagg was engaged in a heated race for the prestigious award with his former Duke teammate and roommate, Kon Knueppel, who also had an outstanding season with the Charlotte Hornets, averaging 18.5 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 3.4 APG. While his base stats are all worse, he led the NBA in three-pointers made, shattering the rookie record for threes made in a season.

Still, you would think Flagg would run away with the award, considering he became the second rookie since 1974, joining Michael Jordan, to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Flagg was the only rookie this year with a 50-point game, and had the four highest scoring games of any rookie this year.

The main argument for Knueppel came down to the Charlotte Hornets being a much more successful team. LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller were mostly healthy this year, but Knueppel's spacing from three made it much easier for them to operate. However, the Rookie of the Year award has rarely, if ever, come down to the more successful team, and it would've been a weird precedent to set this long into the award's history. It has always been who the better rookie is, and Flagg was undoubtedly the best rookie.

ONE OF NONE.

COOPER FLAGG IS YOUR 25-26 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR!#MFFLAGG pic.twitter.com/0YjAS5QESL
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) April 27, 2026

Dallas Mavericks Rookie of the Year History

Cooper Flagg becomes the third Maverick to take home Rookie of the Year, joining Luka Doncic (2019) and his head coach, Jason Kidd (1994), who split the award with Grant Hill. Flagg also joined Doncic as one of the just few rookies in NBA history to average 21+ PPG, 6.5+ RPG, and 4.5+ APG. The others are Jordan, Oscar Robertson, and Larry Bird.

This was the only thing the Mavericks were shooting for at the end of the season. They were eliminated from the playoffs with weeks remaining, so they let Flagg be the focus while propping him up in the media. It paid off in the end, as he took home the hardware.

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