A young boy from a small town in Maine, watching old Boston Celtics DVDs in the backseat of his parent’s car as they drove for hours to get to basketball practice. Fast forward to today and that same boy is now leading the ACC in freshman scoring and that too with comparisons to NBA legends. Oddsmakers have now made him a heavy favorite at -400 to win National Player of the Year. But with Cooper Flagg on the rise, still there is a shadow that looms over his fairytale debut. 

Reporter Isaac Trotter has called Flagg’s season “the third-best individual season” since he began tracking NPOY performance. “He is just barely behind Zach Edey and Frank ‘The Tank’ Kaminsky from Wisconsin,” Trotter revealed. “Legitimately fractions behind what we saw from Zach Edey last year in the second National Player of the Year award that he won.” 

And Flagg’s stats back this up. In Duke, he’s averaging 18.7 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists per game leading the team to a 15-2 record. But the comparison to Edey and Kaminsky reveals a gap. In 2023-2024, Edey churned out staggering averages of 25.2 points and 12.2 rebounds, and Kaminsky led Wisconsin to a national championship game in 2015 when he averaged 18.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.

This can’t be overlooked, the difference in experience. As seniors, Edey and Kaminsky both found their peaks, utilizing years of refinement to command dominance. But Flagg is making his case as a freshman, a true freshman, which magnifies his potential but limits his immediate ceiling. This simply proves just how good a player Flagg is. Especially since he has numbers that are close to the numbers of the veterans. Also, the race for this year’s NPOY award seems to boil down to two names: Cooper Flagg and Auburn’s Johni Broome.

Cooper Flagg vs. Johni Broome: A two-man race for NPOY

According to Trotter, “Flagg has been absolutely tremendous… if Broome is out the next two to three weeks with a painful ankle injury, I think it is going to give Cooper a chance to really start to extend the lead.”

Before his ankle injury, Broome, a senior, was the early favorite, averaging 17.9 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game. Anchoring Auburn, as a projected #1 NCAA Tournament seed, he leads the SEC in rebounds and blocks. However, with Broome absent, Flagg has taken advantage, passing him on KenPom’s Player of the Year rankings and developing an edge in most sportsbooks.

But the season is not over yet; there is still time. If Broome makes a full recovery, the discussion could rise again. It may come down to the team’s ultimate success. Duke and Auburn are both fighting for top seeds in March Madness and both of their stars could be the difference in who wins.

But for the time being, that spotlight belongs to Cooper Flagg. Not only does his exceptional freshman season cement him in this year’s NPOY discussion, it also promises more success to follow afterward. As the basketball world continues to watch, one thing is certain. The kid from Maine is no longer dreaming, he is now rewriting the story of what’s possible.