Chris Broussard on Cooper Flagg: 'I Love to See a White American Superstar'

Many heralded Dallas Mavericks rookie as the “Great White Hope” when he entered the NBA, and, for longtime NBA reporter Chris Boussard, he agrees.

Fresh off a weekend where Flagg, 19, became the first teenager in NBA history to score 50 points in a single game, Broussard joined FS1’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd to discuss not only the rookie’s tremendous play, but also his impact on the league as a white superstar at a time when there are precious few.

“I was saying years ago, I would love to see a white American superstar in the NBA…Cooper Flagg is a great white American player, and he is going to be a superstar. That’s great to see, I think it’s just good for the league,” Broussard said.

To be clear, there have been multiple star-level, even MVP-level white players in the league in recent years – Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic stand out as just a couple.

However, finding a white superstar without an “ic” at the end of his name has proven problematic.

While the college game is replete with American-born white superstars, the NBA is less so. The NBA is hoping that Flagg and his college teammate at Duke, Kon Kneuppel, will be the front-runners in a trend that will emerge just in time for the retirements of longtime superstars LeBron James and Stephen Curry.

The NBA, once foolishly promoted by NBA media as a potential rival to the runaway popularity of the NFL, languishes in distant third place behind not only the NFL but also a rejuvenated and suddenly fun-to-watch MLB.

If the NBA, a league justly maligned as a politically driven operation that relies on foreign talent and patronage (China), and where players give minimal effort, intends to avoid drifting further into irrelevance, it will need Flagg and Kneuppel to continue producing, big time.