Duke coach Jon Scheyer chuckled when he was asked if he ignored the former NBA player who first told him about Cooper Flagg.
“Well, I heard about Cooper when he was very young,” Scheyer said during an interview with ZAGSBLOG’s Alejandro Lopez on Friday at Prudential Center. “[Brian] Scalabrine was the first person to let me know that this was a no-brainer. I didn’t ignore him, okay? I didn’t ignore him. I replied right away and kept track of his progress. He was just 14 years old at that time.
Scalabrine, the former NBA player who now co-hosts “The Starting Lineup” with Frank Isola on SiriusXM NBA Radio, started training a young Cooper Flagg in Flagg’s home state of Maine several years ago.
“I believe he’s got the talent of an NBA player and really understands the game. I’m not sure how great he will be in the NBA, but he’s definitely something special,” Scalabrine mentioned in 2022 during a Sirius XM radio show with Frank Isola.
Scalabrine was clearly right, as the now 18-year-old Flagg is likely the top player in college basketball, leading his team to the Elite Eight and is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft.
Scalabrine has mentioned several times that he reached out to Duke to talk about Flagg when he was younger, joking that the school didn’t take him seriously.
“After Flagg played really well against some University of Maine players, I called USA Basketball the next day, then Duke, saying, ‘This guy is amazing,’” Scalabrine shared in an interview last year.
“They brushed me off, saying he’s just a kid from Maine and that they would consider him. And then he really took off from there.”
Cooper and his twin brother Ace played a key role in helping Nokomis High School in Maine secure the Class A state title during their freshman year in 2022. They then transferred to the strong Montverde Academy before the 2023-24 season began.
In 2023, they took the Maine United 15U team to the finals of the well-known Nike Peach Jam.
“I still remember the first time I saw him play in person when he was 15 at the Nike EYBL Peach Jam. I thought to myself, Skal was right,” Scheyer shared. “It only took me about 90 seconds to realize his talent. From that moment on, I was all in.
“There are specific times when you can reach out, but we started building a connection, and the rest is history.”
Flagg joked about how he felt when Scheyer first called him.
“When I first heard from Coach Scheyer, I didn’t really want to pick up the phone,” Flagg said with a laugh on Friday. “But I decided to answer anyway and give him a chance.
