Jamal Mashburn, Udonis Haslem Prove Only Their Own Cluelessness With Cooper Flagg Comments

HOUSTON, TEXAS - JANUARY 31: Cooper Flagg #32 of the Dallas Mavericks shoots against Alperen Sengun #28 of the Houston Rockets in the first half at Toyota Center on January 31, 2026 in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) | Getty Images

The kid Cooper Flagg had just put together an all-time performance, accomplishing something we’d never seen a teenager do in an NBA game, and he was getting ready to follow it up with 34 and 12.

So, of course, Saturday afternoon was the perfect moment for two of the most insane media takes you could dream up in the interim.

Udonis Haslem and Jamal Mashburn, both former NBA players, proved on Saturday that they don’t watch actual NBA games as part of their duties as media personalities, unleashing separate takes on Cooper Flagg’s rookie year that were equally untethered to reality.

Perhaps it’s healthier to simply ignore takes as asinine as these, but this isn’t the doctor’s office. After all, one of them was offered by an “analyst” who was also a highly sought-after NBA Draft prospect once, selected fourth overall by the Dallas Mavericks in 1993. Let’s start with Mashburn.

He was being recorded for broadcast to a wide audience of sports viewers when he said on Saturday, “If I was to put [Cooper Flagg] on that list [of current college Freshmen], he would be sixth.”

Imagine telling a million sports fans with eyes that the guy who had just matched Michael Jordan’s best scoring output as a rookie in an NBA game would be the sixth pick in the upcoming NBA Draft if he hadn’t reclassified, because he “still has some holes in his game.”

It’s true, the 2026 NBA Draft class is likely going to be one of the best in recent memory. BYU’s A.J. Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, Houston’s Kingston Flemings, Arizona’s Koa Peat, North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson and Duke’s Cam Boozer are all legit prospects with the potential to help change the trajectory of an NBA bottom-feeder. One or two of them may even end up being generational players. Miss me with the “Caleb Wilson’s game is a better fit for the NBA than Cooper Flagg’s” nonsense, though. One is actually doing it. The other hasn’t been given the chance yet. Comparison, and especially this brand of comparison, is the thief of, not only joy, for fuck’s sake, but sanity.

Flagg is already busy proving he is the guy these other six hope to one day become. His 49-point outburst in the Mavericks’ 123-121 loss to the Charlotte Hornets was the best scoring night by a 19-year-old in NBA history. It was his second 40-plus point outing this season. He would follow it up with 34 points and 12 boards in a 111-107 loss to the Houston Rockets mere hours after Mashburn inserted his foot into his mouth on cable television, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to record back-to-back 30-point double-doubles in the process.

We’ll save this clip for a year or so to see how many 40-point nights any of these six tremendous prospects have in their rookie NBA seasons. Kobe Bryant never scored 40 as a rookie. Neither did Luka Dončić. Victor Wembanyama scored exactly 40 once in his rookie season. Flagg is putting together a rookie year that separates him from even these greats. He’s entering rarified air occupied by only Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James on his best nights.

Now, onto everyone’s (read: no one’s) favorite, Udonis Haslem, who also ran his mouth on Saturday before Flagg continued his run of excellence, when he said that if he were starting a team with one of the NBA’s current rookies, he’d choose Philadelphia 76ers’ guard VJ Edgecombe over Flagg.

“If I’m starting a team, I’m starting a team with a two-way guy,” Haslem said — the inference being that the two rookies he was comparing Edgecombe to are not two-way guys.

“I know Cooper [Flagg] is doing his thing, I know Kon [Knueppel] is doing his thing, but out of all these guys, VJ is the two-way guy,” were the words that tumbled from Haslem’s mouth hole. “He is the guy that can impact the game on both ends. I’ve watched three quarters of VJ Edgecombe guarding Brunson, guarding Luka and then all of a sudden in the fourth quarter, he’s making big shots.”

My brother in Christ, you just described Flagg’s rookie year in an attempt to credit another rookie with doing the exact things that Flagg has accomplished. Too many times, through Flagg’s first 30 or so games with the Mavericks, his teammates forgot about him, the offense flowed through a revolving door of role-player schlock, while Flagg worked tirelessly on the defensive end to keep the opposing team’s best player in check. Then, at a certain point, whether in the fourth quarter of a close game or as fall turns to winter in Flagg’s first season in the NBA, Flagg takes any choice in the matter out of the hands of his coach and his teammates.

He’s been one of the top-10 performers in clutch-game scenarios in the NBA this year. He’s taken his development — again, as a 19-year-old — to another level by asserting his will on games after getting his feet wet for the first 20 games of his rookie campaign. You say you’re describing Edgecombe, but what you’re actually doing is proving that, despite your lofty title at your cushy ESPN gig, you haven’t watched Flagg play.

What you find out when you watch way too much basketball and basketball-related content is that these “analysts” often say shit just to say shit. They blather and meander and meander and blather, filling endless segments with meaningless debate fodder. But when they open mouth and insert foot to this degree, I’m glad Flagg is there with a 34-point, 12-rebound retort at the ready, and I’m glad he’s wearing a Mavericks jersey when he does it.