Thirty years ago the press spoke of ‘the new Jordan’ every time a youngster stood out above the average; the simplicity of the epithet has endured over time with a small variant in the name: today it’s ‘the new LeBron’.
And it is not a mere generational adaptation, for while fathers and sons will never bury the hatchet on Jordan or LeBron, LeBron or Jordan, they do seem increasingly to agree that at the top stand those two, and then – Magic, Russell, Chamberlain, Jabbar, Bird, Shaq, Olajuwon, Kobe – the rest.
And if, as a rule, comparison as a claim rarely goes beyond pure clickbait, there are occasions, the scarce ones, where the comparison can make sense. Which, by itself, speaks very well of the young man in question. Because the mere fact that you are mentioned alongside Jordan or LeBron and come out unscathed indicates that there is a budding star there.
Because that is exactly what Cooper Flagg is. A No. 1 pick who is starting to give reason to all those who insisted we were facing an absolutely generational first pick.
All-Star Box Scores
Frank Urbina, de , ha sentado LeBron y Flagg a la misma mesa. Pero a una versión temprana de ambos: la de antes de cumplir los veinte.
Con los datos recogidos a 5 de noviembre, el alero de Dallas promedia 21.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists en su incipiente carrera NBA. LeBron cerró su etapa adolescente en 21.9, 5.9 y 6.2, respectivamente. Flagg presenta mejor acierto en tiros de campo (46.8% frente al 43.6%); James, sin ser el punto fuerte de ninguno, desde el triple (31.7% por 28.5%).
En este primer cotejo numérico Flagg no solo aguanta el tipo, sino que tiene donde sacar pecho, como presumir de una noche histórica de 51 puntos –ante Orlando en abril– para convertirse en el primer adolescente que alcanzaba los cincuenta en la NBA.
Si nos adentramos en aguas más profundas, no obstante, LeBron mantiene la delantera con mejores estadísticas avanzadas durante su temporada de novato: VORP, BPM y Win Shares.
77 official games has Flagg accumulated to date, with room to add a few more before his birthday, December 21. LeBron, who played 79 games to Flagg’s 70 as a rookie, went on to reach 108.
And let no one think that this is meant to be a debate about which of these two wings was better in their first fifteen months in the NBA. It leads nowhere.
But the fact that we can write this little piece without wanting to tear our hair out at the end does tell us that, while Mavericks fans were mourning after the loss of an irreplaceable player with Luka Dončić, there are more than enough reasons to stop wearing black.
