{"id":719974,"date":"2026-04-28T04:03:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/719974\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T04:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:03:26","slug":"carmelo-anthony-gives-credit-to-nico-harrison-for-cooper-flagg-winning-rookie-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/719974\/","title":{"rendered":"Carmelo Anthony gives credit to Nico Harrison for Cooper Flagg winning rookie of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> capped off a rough season with a silver lining, as rookie phenom Cooper Flagg was named 2025-2026 NBA Rookie of the Year<\/a> Monday night. In what was a polarizing race between he and Charlotte Hornets<\/a>\u2019 Kon Knueppel, we saw one of the most historic rookie campaigns from the former, pitted against one of the most efficient rookie shooting seasons from the latter.<\/p>\n

A straw poll just days before the season ended had Knueppel winning the award, completely befuddling Mavs\u2019 fans who thought their guy was the obvious winner. Whether or not a poor showing across two PlayIn Tournament games for Knueppel swayed some voters (it technically shouldn\u2019t have factored into their decision, but unseeing something isn\u2019t exactly realistic) is anyone\u2019s guess. When all was said and done, Flagg grabbed 56 first place votes to Knueppel\u2019s 44, it what was the second smallest margin of victory since the 2002-2003 season when the current voting format took effect.<\/p>\n

Mavs\u2019 fans got a little something to feel good about, and a very tight, intriguing race feels like it ended positively for all involved. Knueppel made a real name for himself and received a ton of recognition in the highly contested race, while Flagg\u2019s truly remarkable (and in some cases, one of a kind) accomplishments earned him the highly coveted award.<\/p>\n

Then, seemingly before the corks from the champagne bottles found their landing spot, we were given a take that was even more unpredictable than the Rookie of the Year race itself. Speaking on NBA Showtime Monday night, studio analyst and former NBA player Carmelo Anthony gave a surprisingly unexpected shoutout\u2026 to former Mavericks\u2019 GM Nico Harrison.<\/p>\n

\u201cShout out to Nico Harrison for seeing this right here; for understanding this vision,\u201d said Anthony, in what is likely one of the most far-fetched interpretations of a scenario you\u2019re likely to see in a long time.<\/p>\n

When I first heard the comments, my immediate instinct to cover the topic was quickly tamped down by the thought that bringing it any attention at all would only exacerbate the problem. Still, it is Mavericks-related news that is what we are here for. While everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I have no interest in squabbling about such things with a member of the media, allow me to offer a counter point: this is insane.<\/p>\n

Anthony is basically suggesting that Nico Harrison\u2019s trade of Luka Doncic was all part of an overarching vision to draft Cooper Flagg. That Harrison\u2019s ability to see Flagg\u2019s talent and choose him with the number one overall pick was a shoutout worthy effort. Break it down for a moment. Harrison traded Doncic for Anthony Davis in what was a win-now move that he expected to net Dallas at least one championship in the ensuing years. At no point, in any way, shape or form, was Harrison\u2019s plan to tear the team down \u2013 a team coming off an NBA Finals appearance \u2013 so he could later draft Cooper Flagg and rebuild it. This is not subjective interpretation, but rather, it\u2019s fact. Harrison so much as told us.<\/p>\n

Further, Harrison could not have possibly predicted the incredibly bad injury luck the Mavs would encounter (although his personnel changes could have given him a hint of things to come), or that the Mavs\u2019 1.8% chance would actually put them in position to move up to the top spot in the draft. Once all of that did happen, it certainly was not a shoutout-worthy event to draft Flagg, the by-far consensus number one pick that year.<\/p>\n

Anthony\u2019s comments echo Harrison\u2019s own absurd declaration after the Draft Lottery that got Dallas the top pick \u2013 something along the lines of \u201cfortune favors the bold.\u201d While that may be true, getting the number one pick was not the result of bold moves with intent. It was the result of extremely fortuitous lottery results on the heels of an epically disastrous post-trade outcome.<\/p>\n

To be fair to Anthony, his fellow analysts chuckled (as did he), and none of them reacted with the stunned shock the commentary actually warranted. To that end, it would not surprise me if everyone was aware of what Anthony would deliver, and maybe he did it with tongue in cheek. Anthony and Vince Carter (who was sitting beside him) have a friendly relationship with Nico Harrison and have previously vocalized support for their friend during the unrelenting backlash he received in the post-trade era.<\/p>\n

While showing support for your friend, especially in the off-chance it was deliberately facetious to a degree, is a noble gesture, re-writing actual reality into a ludicrous Bizarro World version of reality is plainly irresponsible. Not because Nico Harrison deserves to be treated like Hester Prynne for all time \u2013 he doesn\u2019t; better to just move on \u2013 but because we should carry a responsibility to truth and this was not that, however much jest may have been baked in (if any). This all could have been time better spent commending the folks who truly did have the vision, and that is the award winner himself and his family who put in endless reps and tons of work to get to this point. That\u2019s where the real story lies.<\/p>\n

I invite you to follow me @_80MPH<\/a> on X, and check back often at Mavs Moneyball<\/a> for all the latest on the Dallas Mavericks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks capped off a rough season with a silver lining, as rookie phenom Cooper Flagg was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,1320,6],"class_list":["post-719974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-mavericks","tag-basketball","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dallasmavericks","tag-mavericks","tag-mavericks-news","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116480350872577668","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}