Even before he committed to the Duke Blue Devils, Cooper Flagg had been touted as a possible first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Nothing Flagg did at Duke -- picking up ACC Player of the Year, leading the Blue Devils to the Final Four, or earning consensus All-American honors -- dissuaded fans, analysts, or scouts of that opinion.
Less than two weeks remain until commissioner Adam Silver begins the draft, in which the Dallas Mavericks hold the top pick after a stunning draft lottery result. But 12 days before they can officially select Flagg, it appears as if the Mavericks have already telegraphed their choice.
DLLS Mavericks reporter Kevin Gray posted on his X account a screenshot from Mavs' official website that displayed Flagg in Dallas' white home jersey -- part of a premature "Welcome to Dallas" graphic that was quickly removed from the team's site.
Gray later deleted the screenshot, as well as a screen-recorded iPhone video that "proved" he had navigated to the Mavericks' draft night portal on the team website, where he encountered the Flagg graphic.
It is not uncommon for social media teams to prepare graphics well in advance for a major announcement -- such as the Mavericks selecting Flagg.
When one fan on X asked if the Mavericks could get into trouble for posting the graphic erroneously, @KevinTroyGA wrote "they'll just say it was a publishing error, that they created several graphics & have them ready to go for whoever is drafted (which, when you're not picking first, you indeed will do)."
As @Michael_Aranda pointed out on X, the section of the website where the Flagg announcement was published was supposed to be a landing page for the Mavericks' draft party.
"This is clearly just a publishing mistake on the website," Aranda said.
Still, other fans bashed the Mavericks for the mistake.
"The Mavs stay embarrassing themselves," wrote @blondie101317, criticizing the franchise for the error.
"Announcing it 12 days early is wild," wrote @timthebim123.
Though it will not be a surprise to see Dallas take Flagg first overall on June 25, some fans did see a "silver lining" in such an early announcement of the Mavericks' intentions.
"Looks like Nico (Harrison) got tired of the “Nico is going to trade Cooper Flagg” that he figured let’s just get out there to stop that talk," wrote @theGOATsPR, in reference to Dallas' general manager Nico Harrison.
The @MavsFilmRoom even mentioned that if Flagg were to wear the #32 as the graphic suggested, then he would be the first Mavericks player to wear the jersey number since Marquese Chriss during the 2021-22 NBA season.