It’s been a rough 24 hours for presumptive first overall pick Cooper Flagg. The Duke forward was part of the team that blew a massive lead in the Final Four last night against Florida, a game in which Flagg missed the potential game-winning shot, and now he has NBA legends cosigning statements about his inabilities after spending the year praising him. While many have already begun to flip on Flagg and start to question his talent, others are discussing where he now sits on the all-time Duke Mount Rushmore.
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Avery Johnson, or coachavery6 on Instagram, gave his own top three. He started with Christian Laettner, the clear and obvious number one choice, and then added Grant Hill and a toss-up of Zion Williamson or Jayson Tatum.
While one can debate the rankings, some were shocked by the lack of mention for Flagg, who didn’t even make the honorable mentions, which included Kyrie Irving, Carlos Boozer, and JJ Redick, despite having a decidedly better Duke career than the highly touted Jayson Tatum.
Shaquille O’Neal reposted this video on his story, seemingly cosigning the point it was making. Shaq has no real connection to Duke, as he went to LSU, but he can definitely speak on the team’s history as he has watched the whole program’s life cycle. His opinion carries a lot of weight considering his legendary college and NBA career.
In the era of one-and-dones, it’s hard to reach a podium of excellence that other players took multiple years crafting. Christian Laettner had four. So did Grant Hill and JJ Redick, my personal choices for the other two spots.
To list Kyrie Irving, who played only a handful of games for Duke, or Jayson Tatum, who did not reach the tournament or individual level of success that Flagg did, seems disrespectful to the Maine product.
Time will tell how good he will be at the pro level, but he is undeniably one of the best handful of Blue Devils to ever represent Duke. To act otherwise is just a case of recency bias.
