Cooper Flagg’s legendary quote from his mom sets up start of incredible NBA journey with Mavericks

Cooper Flagg could've just had his high school graduation.

Instead, he's the top player in the 2025 NBA Draft and a future Dallas Mavericks star.

That's all because he chose in high school to reclassify to get to college at Duke a year early.

His explanation for the move, told to the Washington Post's Ben Golliver, explains a lot about Flagg's mindset.

Here's what Flagg said the day before the draft:

"A quote my mom likes to say a lot—'If you're the best player in the gym, then you need to find a new gym.' So for me it was thinking about what I had left to do in high school, and how much that would push me to become a better player. So for me, that decision wasn't too hard.

"I kind of knew that we were going to have a really, really good team and then the next year would kind of be the fall off of the competition and things like that, so I kind of just made the decision based on that. I felt like it was time for me to get to a new environment and push myself to higher levels.”

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Flagg was certainly the best player in the gym in high school, so he found Cameron Indoor.

Then he was the best player in the gym in college, so now it's off to the NBA.

There's no higher league than the NBA, so there's nowhere else to ascend to.

Mavericks fans would happily settle for Flagg being the best player in the gym in the league, though. That'd work out just fine.

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