LAS VEGAS — When Cooper Flagg got the call from Team USA CEO Grant Hill that he would be part of the Select Team here at Team USA's training camp ahead of the Paris Olympics, becoming the first college player in more than a decade to participate in the camp, he wasn't expecting the honor.
“I was very surprised because it's not a normal thing,” Flagg told ESPN on Sunday, after playing against the star-studded men's national team for the first time. “I was definitely very honored and excited to have this opportunity.”
“If you think about it, you can learn from… if you look at their team, there's nobody better. So just coming here and learning is a great experience and I really feel honored and grateful and blessed to have been selected.”
Flagg, who will play for Duke this fall, is a 6-foot-9 forward and is projected by ESPN's Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, a loaded class that several teams have taken steps in recent weeks to prepare to lose.
The 17-year-old put up astonishing numbers in the Nike EYBL League (averaging 26.8 points, 12.4 rebounds, 5.2 blocks and 4.7 assists per game), while leading Montverde Academy in Florida to a 30-0 record and a national title, while also participating in the Nike Hoop Summit and other high school all-star games.
As a result, Team USA selected him as the first college player to participate in a training camp since Marcus Smart and Doug McDermott in 2013, and according to Select Team coach Jamahl Mosley, he was a more than good fit.
“I hadn't been around him, so just getting to know him and talking to him on the first day of practice the other day, you can see the quiet confidence that he carries with him,” Mosley, the Orlando Magic head coach, told ESPN. “His ability to know what he's capable of doing, but also the humility to know, 'OK, I'm still trying to figure out some of this stuff at this level,' but he's not afraid of it. And that's what you can tell right away.
“[He has a] “He has a high basketball IQ, he's tough and he's willing to learn,” Mosley continued. “He gets to the spots he needs to shoot very frequently, he's able to get to the rim and he has great touch on his shot.
“I mean he can play. There's no middle ground. I'm saying in many different ways he can play without any problems.”
For his part, Flagg admitted that, at least initially, he was in awe of the moment he stepped onto the court for a practice game for the first time on Sunday.
“I was a little bit in awe at first when I first walked in here,” Flagg said, “but then once the ball got up there, for me, at the end of the day, it's basketball.
“We're all very good players and I've always admired everyone on that team. But once we started playing, it was just about competing.”
Flagg’s parents were on hand to watch him participate (something he said he was happy for them to be involved in and experiment with him on), as was his coach at Duke, Jon Scheyer. And while he’ll likely only spend a year with the Blue Devils before entering the NBA, Flagg said he was looking to use his time here to absorb as much as he can from the assembled stars who were participating as he prepares to join them in the NBA a year from now.
There's a lot to learn for a prodigy who won't turn 18 until December, and who was born while Kevin Durant was a freshman at the University of Texas and LeBron James was already in the middle of his fourth NBA season.
“I think that's everything,” Flagg said, when asked what he can learn from this experience. “Just the way they carry themselves, the way they take care of themselves, how they treat their bodies, how they prepare.”
“It's really a learning curve and something that you have to learn and you have to learn from other people and just build your own routine. So I think you just have to watch all of their routines, watch how they interact with the coaches, with everyone, and just see how they prepare.”
