{"id":720364,"date":"2026-04-28T14:48:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/720364\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:48:23","slug":"cooper-flagg-shows-competitive-side-while-addressing-roy-race-with-friend-kon-knueppel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/720364\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooper Flagg shows competitive side while addressing ROY race with friend Kon Knueppel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA confirmed on Monday that Dallas Mavericks<\/a> guard Cooper Flagg<\/a> has been named Rookie of the Year. The announcement followed a tightly contested race with Charlotte Hornets<\/a> prospect Kon Knueppel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flagg secured 56 first-place votes, narrowly beating Knueppel, who received 44. The close margin reflected how consistent both players were throughout the season.<\/p>\n

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Speaking on NBA Showtime after the award was revealed, the Mavs prospect offered insight into how closely he followed the race, particularly when it came to his friend and rival.<\/p>\n

Cooper Flagg concedes tracking Kon Knueppel closely in Rookie of the Year battle\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Sam Hodde\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Flagg admitted he regularly kept tabs on Knueppel\u2019s performances, either by watching games or checking box scores. The habit underlined the competitive edge that drove him throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Monitoring Knueppel helped him understand the level required to stay ahead in the Rookie of the Year conversation.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Flagg made it clear his interest was not purely competitive. His connection with Knueppel added another layer to how he followed his progress.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor sure [I watched Knueppel\u2019s displays]. I see the games every night and I can check the box scores, I see them on Instagram or whatever. But I think I was also watching Kon because that\u2019s one of my brothers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have such a good connection and we\u2019re gonna be there for each other for the rest of our lives. I was watching them as a fan as well, but it obviously had that competition at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

That balance between rivalry and friendship defined their battle, with both players pushing each other across the season.<\/p>\n

Cooper Flagg makes history with Rookie of the Year win<\/p>\n

The award places the Mavericks star in rare company at an early stage of his career. He has become the second-youngest Rookie of the Year in NBA history.<\/p>\n

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Only LeBron James<\/a> achieved the feat at a younger age, highlighting the scale of Flagg\u2019s achievement.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old also matched a remarkable benchmark set decades ago. Flagg is the first rookie since Michael Jordan to lead his team in total points, rebounds, assists and steals.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA confirmed on Monday that Dallas Mavericks guard Cooper Flagg has been named Rookie of the Year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,225,149,685,968,185,6,59708],"class_list":["post-720364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-charlotte-hornets","tag-basketball","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-charlottehornets","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-hornets","tag-kon-knueppel","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba","tag-nba-showtime"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116482888166024516","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720364","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=720364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}