YouTube Gold: First Take Debates Cooper Flagg’s Greatness
And Stephen A. makes a bizarre mistake
ESPN had a really interesting discussion about where Cooper Flagg stands in the Duke pantheon of Duke greats.
Stephen A. Smith got into it with Joe Fortenbaugh and, to a lesser extent Seth Greenberg about whether or not Flagg is one of Duke’s four best all-time.
Everyone agreed, more or less, on Christian Laettner, Grant Hill and Jason Williams. Shane Battier and/or JJ Redick were seen as the #4.
Fortenbaugh raised an interesting point about judging four-year players vs. one-and-dones and how to judge them.
You can see how Stephen A. responds to that.
What’s interesting to us is to think about some of these guys in head-to-head competition, especially how Flagg would do against Hill or Battier.
Both were superb defenders of course. Hill was the greatest talent Duke has ever had he was brilliant on both ends of the court. Perhaps the single greatest play in Duke history was watching him break up a 4-on-1 break by UNC. Just incredible.
Battier was a superb defender and by the time he was a senior, he was a terrific shooter as well, and his title drive was as passionate and great as any individual performance we’ve ever seen. You know that old trope about “he didn’t leave anything on the floor?” That was true for Battier. He gave every drop he had.
So consider that when you start thinking about this. And consider this too: no one made a serious argument for Zion Williamson. It would be easy to make one but the fact that no one really did underscores how strong Duke’s tradition is.
After you contemplate Flagg going against Hill and Battier, take a minute and consider him playing against Williamson.
Or even more fun, playing together.
By the way, Smith refers to the late Nolan Richardson, which probably came as a bit of a surprise to the Arkansas legend as he’s very much alive.