NBA star-in-waiting Cooper Flagg can’t escape the ghost of the Great White Hope | Cooper Flagg
EEvery time Jack Johnson’s big black fists struck a white fighter’s face, he not only broke the bones of his opponents, but the spirit of white America. Shot after shot after shot. From this shame a myth was born. One after the other, the white fighters stood like scarecrows. One after the other, collapsing. As cultural critic Gerald Early has argued, Johnson’s fights were less about sport than about racial drama in America, with each knockout symbolizing a direct challenge to white supremacy. Over the next 100 years, in many sports, white people tried to find the next champion to restore them to glory. This myth-making even inspired Howard Sackler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Great White Hope.
In basketball, figures like Jerry West and “Pistol” Pete Maravich represented Anglo-Saxon excellence before the complete desegregation of the NBA revealed the overwhelming superiority of African-American players. By the time Larry Bird appeared in the 1980s, the Great White Hope narrative had simply been repackaged for a new generation. Bird was a tough guy from Indiana. Bird was a godsend to Boston’s white working class. Bird was Magic’s equal. Bird was the Great White Hope disguised as a Great White Hope denier.
From a 1985 Sports Illustrated profile:
I don’t want to be seen as the Great White Hope. I just want to be a great basketball player, period.
But that was 40 years ago. Since then, the white players at MVP level have all been European (Dirk Nowitzki, Luka Dončić, Nikola Jokić). There has not been a white American All-Star in the NBA since Kevin Love in 2018: a good player, but no superstar.
If there was ever a made-for-TV storyline for the emergence of the next Great White Hope, Sackler couldn’t have imagined a better environment than the Dallas Mavericks. It’s the only franchise that can say its three best players of all time are all white (Steve Nash, Nowitzki, Dončić). While the Dončić trade to the Lakers is still fresh and raw, Dallas is desperate. The city languishes, nursing an open wound. So when plot luck fell into Harrison’s lap, Cooper Flagg became part of a cycle of myths that preceded him by a millennium.
Not since LeBron James in 2003 has a rookie arrived with such immense expectations, as well as the hopes of a city desperate to deliver. In Dallas, 18-year-old Flagg walks into a shit show. The Doncić trade was one of the worst ever. When he was traded, fans protested his loss outside the arena for weeks, even dragging a coffin to the steps of the American Airlines Center. A dead fandom in a dead box. Harrison should thank his stupid luck, or the scripted sham that landed him Flagg, which ostensibly saved his job.
None of this is Flagg’s fault. He’s just a nice boy from Maine who wants to hoop. But the reality is that the Mavericks are a huge question mark. Harrison is still the GM, so anything is possible regarding roster construction. Kyrie Irving re-signed with Dallas this summer, but is out for the year with a torn ACL. Anthony Davis is a former superstar who may still have something special in the tank at 32, but remains the most injury-prone big man in the NBA. The rest of the roster is made up of bigs and defensive-minded wings. Most of the shot creation will fall on Flagg, who will be the legitimate favorite for Rookie of the Year. He also has a chance, with Irving out, to lead the Mavs in scoring and assists. Flagg is best known for his all-around two-way game, particularly his voracious defense. But the first year, he will be asked to run the offense.
Viewing his full filming profile reveals the cracks and the promise. From Maine United to Montverde to Duke, the data shows what type of looks he’s chasing and what he’s doing with them. Layups (1.22 points per shot) and free throws (a ridiculous 1.62) are his livelihood. The three unguarded catch-and-shoots are worth the money at 1.08 points per shot. Then the cracks: pull-up two at 0.64, floaters at 0.87 sink like stones. This is where the defense will force him in year one. As a rookie, he will have to live on the edge and on the line. Polished Bird-style pull daggers will come later.
Unlike the opponents Johnson has put on the field, Flagg is the real deal. He erases the old stereotype of the “cunning but unathletic” white player. His vertical jump is violent and fast, his defense terribly reactive. He can shoot, handle, defend and play. His favorite player? Bird. No shit. He also has Bird’s bawdy panache, which he’ll need every ounce of, playing for Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson. His titles include: gaming lobbyist. Top Trump donor. Architect of legalized vice. Casino builder. Propagandist of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. She’s all of those things, and she’s also the primary architect of legalizing gambling in Texas so she could plunge Dallas into gambling degeneracy. Rookies don’t decide where they get drafted. Flagg has to play for an owner whose politics are toxic. That’s part of the pressure he’ll face just trying to play hoops.
Dallas has a fan base accustomed to white superstars. Flagg doesn’t have to replace Dončić, but he must follow in his footsteps. Dirk was a quiet, gentle and approachable assassin. Dončić was an evil, sarcastic, swag-filled leprechaun from South Dallas. Both were loved. Flagg’s transfer is interrupted before it begins. He will need to dominate on the field and establish a presence off it.
So far, he has responded coolly: “I wouldn’t consider anything as pressure. … I’m not worried about living up to certain players’ expectations. … I’m just going to be myself and really try to improve every day that I can.”
But Flagg isn’t just entering racial baggage: he’s entering the national zeitgeist. After the first two decades of the NBA were dominated by white Americans, desegregation made it clear that black players were superior in every part of the game. Ironically, Nowitzki became the archetype who helped Europe catch up to America. Dirk was the first European-born MVP, but Jokić has racked up three. Former Mav Nash won back-to-back MVP honors in Phoenix. Meanwhile, the United States has produced mostly white actors like JJ Redick: shooters, entertainers, table setters. It’s hard to continue to pretend that America is the best basketball country when it’s been eight seasons since it produced an MVP.
Flagg has the chance to be more than that. He looks like a transcendent talent, a player who could change not only the way the game is played, but also the way it is taught. After Dirk, all the big threes. Not since Brent “Bones” Barry have we seen a suburban white kid get dunked like this. Defensively, Flagg is already built differently. His timing and coordination are supernatural: those “dead arm” blocks where he meets the ball in the air without flinching. His rim protection already looks like that of a perennial All-Defense candidate before he can legally buy a beer.
Similarly, Caitlin Clark’s arrival in the WNBA was a ratings and culture war whirlwind for a white phenom in a black-dominated league. Flagg steps into something similar, although the storyline is older on the men’s side and directly woven into NBA mythology.
It’s crazy fandom to pick on anyone because of their race. But it happens in every race and every sport. Dallas is unique in its history of generational white stars. Flagg will need to block out the noise and focus on the ball. He did it on every level. The city is wounded, still raw since Dončić’s departure, and healing must take place. Providing entertainment for the masses will help, but Dallas doesn’t have a mythical Jack Johnson to take down. There is no racial redemption arc waiting to be realized. There is only composure and hard truths.
Flagg does not exist to redeem whiteness or avenge the ghosts of Jack Johnson. He exists in a league where these myths persist but no longer dictate play. His story is one of possibility. He’s a teenager who enters a story bigger than himself. At worst, Flagg will be a welcome distraction. At best, he could write the next chapter in basketball’s complicated history of expectations.
