Maine native, projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg declares for 2025 NBA draft
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PORTLAND, Maine (WMTW) — Cooper Flagg has announced he will be entering his name in the 2025 NBA draft after a phenomenal freshman season at Duke University.
Flagg is the projected No. 1 overall pick after he led the Duke Blue Devils to the Final Four while winning a handful of National Player of the Year awards.
The 18-year-old from Newport, Maine, made the announcement in a video posted to his Instagram account Monday morning.
“It was an incredible year, probably the best year of my life, and I have so much gratitude. I feel so blessed for all the opportunities that I was given. Duke has always been a dream for me, but I’m excited to announce that I will be entering my name into the 2025 NBA draft,” Flagg said in the video. “Today is just the beginning, but I have ‘The Brotherhood’ with me for life.”
The Duke men’s basketball team thanked Flagg for his contributions to the program in multiple social media posts, including a video message from head coach Jon Scheyer.
“Really proud of Cooper for the special season that he had this year,” Scheyer said. “His highlights, his statistics, the ways he impacted the game on both ends of the floor — really in every category — was off the charts. As good as a freshman season that a guy has had here,” Scheyer said. “But to me, the separator and the joy of coaching Cooper was the person he was every day, the teammate that he was. It was never about statistics or anything other than creating an environment and helping this team to win. We won a lot of games, had a lot of success, and a lot of times, that environment is created from your best player and Cooper did an incredible job in every facet of our program, on and off the court.”
Flagg led Duke with averages of 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals per game and was named a consensus All-American. He won the Naismith Trophy, Wooden Award, AP Player of the Year Award, Oscar Robertson Trophy and NABC Division I Player of the Year award.
He also won Freshman of the Year from the NABC and the Wayman Tisdale Trophy, which is awarded to the national freshman of the year by the USBWA.
In addition, Flagg won the Julius Erving Award, which is presented by the Basketball Hall of Fame to the best small forward in the country.
Flagg was also named the ACC’s Player and Rookie of the Year. He finished second for the ACC Defensive Player of the Year award and was named to the All-ACC First Team, ACC All-Defensive Team and ACC All-Rookie Team.
He starred in the NCAA Tournament, averaging 21.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.0 blocks in Duke’s five games. After the Blue Devils won in the Elite Eight, Flagg was named the Most Outstanding Player of the East Region. He was also selected for the All-Tournament Team, becoming only the fifth player in the 21st century to earn that distinction without playing in the national title game.
The first round of the 2025 NBA draft will be broadcast on WMTW Channel 8 on Wednesday, June 25.
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