Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg has claimed the 2025-26 NBA Rookie of the Year award following one of the tightest voting contests in the honor’s recent memory, announced Monday by a worldwide panel of 100 media members.
The young star received the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy after edging out Charlotte Hornets player Kon Knueppel, his former teammate at Duke University, by a margin of 412-386 points. The voting breakdown showed Flagg securing 56 first-place selections compared to Knueppel’s 44.
Philadelphia 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe claimed the third position with 96 points, though he failed to receive any first-place recognition and earned just a single second-place nod. San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper garnered 5 points, while Memphis Grizzlies forward Cedric Coward received 1 point, rounding out the vote recipients.
The top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft fulfilled every expectation placed upon him during his debut season. Among qualifying first-year players, Flagg topped the scoring charts at 21.0 points per game while ranking second in assists with 4.5 per contest and third in rebounds at 6.7 per game.
“This is a truly great honor,” Flagg said in a statement. “I’m grateful to receive this award and thankful to everyone in the Dallas Mavericks organization who believed in me from Day 1.”
“None of this happens without my teammates, coaches and the people around me pushing me every day. I came here to compete and help this team win. This is just one step forward in what we’re building.”
The achievement places Flagg among elite company as just the fourth first-year player to post averages of at least 20 points, six rebounds and four assists per game since the NBA-ABA merger. He joins Larry Bird (1979-80), Michael Jordan (1984-85) and Luke Doncic (2018-19) in reaching those statistical benchmarks.
At 19 years and 112 days old as of April 12, Flagg becomes the second-youngest recipient of the award, trailing LeBron James by merely six days when James captured the honor in 2003-04.
Many analysts believed Knueppel had a strong case for the award after he established a new league record for three-point field goals made with 273, surpassing the previous rookie milestone by 67 shots. However, the fourth overall draft selection ranked third in scoring on his own team at 18.5 points per game, behind Brandon Miller’s 20.2 and LaMelo Ball’s 20.1.
The voting margin represents the second-closest decision in recent years, following Toronto’s Scottie Barnes’ narrow victory over Cleveland’s Evan Mobley four years ago by a 378-363 count, which remains the smallest gap under the current voting system established in 2002-03.
