Former Duke star and current Dallas Maverick Cooper Flagg is awaiting his NBA debut, which is still more than a month away. And while the No. 1 overall pick is spending a lot of time on the court preparing for his first professional season, he’s also keeping sharp in an unusual way: playing NBA 2K26.
“I’ve been talking to Cooper Flagg a lot the last couple of weeks, and he’s already trying to shape up how he’s going to fit into that team by playing the NBA2K26 game with him, integrated with Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis,” Ronnie Singh, the face of marketing for NBA2K, said. “He might not get to play with Kyrie for a minute, so it’s kind of cool that he gets to simulate that, see how the off-the-ball movement is. Our AI is so good. It really simulates the authentic experience of being on the court.”
That’s certainly a new way to train for an upcoming season that we’re confident Michael Jordan or Larry Bird didn’t use.
Flagg and the Mavericks open their season against the San Antonio Spurs on Oct. 22.