{"id":721737,"date":"2026-04-30T04:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/721737\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T04:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:48:17","slug":"mavericks-cooper-flagg-addresses-relationship-with-kon-knueppel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/721737\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg Addresses Relationship With Kon Knueppel"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a tight Rookie of the Year race between Dallas Mavericks<\/a> forward Cooper Flagg<\/a> and Charlotte Hornets<\/a> forward Kon Knueppel<\/a>. Ultimately, the award was given to Flagg<\/a>, who received 56 first-place votes. Knueppel, meanwhile, came up short and only had 44 votes.<\/p>\n

Both former Duke players were favorites to win the award. Before the 2025-26 NBA season started, Flagg was already the heavy favorite to win the award. However, things changed when Knueppel showed his dominance and won the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for four consecutive months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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However, the honor was still awarded to the Mavericks forward, who became the second-youngest player to win.<\/p>\n

Cooper Flagg Shared His Close Bond With Kon Knueppel\"Charlotte<\/p>\n

Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel (7)<\/p>\n

Although there’s a friendly on-court rivalry between Flagg and Knueppel, the future Mavericks star said that there’s nothing but love for the two of them. The two first-year NBA players did not let the difficult competition for Rookie of the Year stand in their way.<\/p>\n

He addressed his dynamic and close bond with the Hornets star on Wednesday’s press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Kon, we talked all year long, but we never talked about the Rookie of the Year, what people were saying about that,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cIt\u2019s more just support for one another and staying in contact. He’s somebody that will be one of my best friends the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust staying in contact, seeing how things have been different for him and how he\u2019s learned. Just trying to help each other in our own single journeys apart from each other\u2026 We definitely stayed in contact and I\u2019ve talked to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Both rookies had historic runs in their first season. Flagg joined<\/a> former NBA star Michael Jordan as the only NBA rookies to lead their respective teams in points, rebounds, assists and steals. He also became the youngest player to reach the 50-point mark in a single season. The 6-foot-9 forward had 51 points<\/a> against the Orlando Magic<\/a> on April 3.<\/p>\n

Knueppel, meanwhile, showed off being a threat from downtown. He recorded 273 3-pointers<\/a> and became the first rookie to lead the NBA in made shots from deep in a single season. The former Duke star made history with his backcourt mate, LaMelo Ball<\/a>. They became the first duo<\/a> since Stephen Curry<\/a> and Klay Thompson<\/a> of the Golden State Warriors<\/a> to record at least 270+ 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

Flagg and Knueppel had a great start to their careers. Fans are excited about how their professional careers will pan out.<\/p>\n

Related: Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg Sends Message After ROTY Win<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Lindys Sports<\/a> on Apr 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a tight Rookie of the Year race between Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg and Charlotte Hornets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,225,149,164,685,498,968,966,6,76,573],"class_list":{"0":"post-721737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charlotte","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-charlottehornets","12":"tag-cooper-flagg","13":"tag-dallas-mavericks","14":"tag-golden-state-warriors","15":"tag-hornets","16":"tag-klay-thompson","17":"tag-kon-knueppel","18":"tag-lamelo-ball","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-orlando-magic","21":"tag-stephen-curry"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116491853186136605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721737","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=721737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}