Basketball fans are already more than ready for the NBA season to begin. Everybody is ready to see Kevin Durant on the Rockets, Luka Doncic in the best shape of his life, Myles Turner paired up with Giannis Antetokounmpo and whether the Thunder are really in the early days of a dynasty.
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There’s no shortage of exciting storylines heading into the season, but one of the biggest is this year’s rookie class. Cooper Flagg was taken with the No. 1 overall pick and he’s one of the most hyped prospects of the last couple decades.
Flagg is in Dallas after the Mavericks defied all odds by winning the lottery, and with Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson and (eventually) Kyrie Irving, he’ll be in a better position than most top overall picks to compete right away.
Flagg may be the headliner, but he’s hardly the only rookie fans are excited to see. Dylan Harper went No.2 to the Spurs, where he’ll join forces with Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox. VJ Edgecombe went third to the Sixers, who despite having a season from hell last year, look poised to bounce back and compete in a weakened East.
Edgecombe and Flagg go way back. The two played against each other in high school, then again in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, with Flagg’s Duke Blue Devils beating Edgecombe’s Baylor Bears 89-66.
Naturally, they’ve developed a rivalry that’s set to continue in the pros, but Edgecombe says that any reports of bad blood between the two are off-base. “It’s a friendly rivalry; off the court we’re close. But we know on the court we’re competing,” he said on a recent appearance on Podcast P with Paul George.
Edgecombe told George, his new teammate, that it all started in high school when he stepped over Flagg following a last-second heave at the end of the third quarter, and then the No. 1-ranked recruit told him, “You not like that.”
“He was on the floor. He shot, flopped to try to get a foul, and I was like, ‘Bro, that ain’t no foul,’ and I just walked over him. And I just walked to my bench, and then he came back like, ‘You not like that.’ Whoever the cameraman was dragged it so crazy, but I’m like, I understand, it’s for clicks. Got like a million views on it.”
People tried to do the same thing when Edgecombe and Flagg went at it in the Big Dance. “We at the free throw line, and they tried to make it a thing again,” Edgecombe said. “We both were smiling, nobody was saying anything. I told him, I was like, ‘Bro, don’t flop, I know you gonna get the call, but don’t flop. It looks bad.'”
“We were just smiling, but soon as it was after the game it was like, ‘Coop talking to VJ again.’ I’m like oh my gosh, bro. But it’s for clicks, you know, I ain’t worried about it.”
The NBA schedule typically comes out in mid-August, so we’ll have to wait until then to find out when Flagg and Edgecombe will get to renew their rivalry on the court. That first Mavs-Sixers game will come with a lot of hype and hopefully it’s the first pro matchup of many between the two young stars-in-the-making.
