Almost Athletes with Dude Perfect - Cooper Flagg & Ace Flagg on the Pain of Losing, Love of Anime, & Being a Mav for Life

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Sparky joins Garrett from tour to break down the latest sports headlines, including World Cup updates, NBA Draft predictions, and their live reaction to the breaking news that Dusty May is the new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. Then, last year’s No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick & Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg and his twin brother Ace Flagg join the Dudes to talk basketball, the transition from college into the NBA, growing up in Maine, life as twins, Dude Perfect fandom, and Cooper’s love of anime and Love Island. To wrap things up, Cooper and Ace build their all-time starting five, leading to some surprising picks and plenty of debate. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:36 Topical Sports 19:10 NBA Talk: Breaking News 25:20 Cooper & Ace Flagg Interview 01:08:00 Build Your Starting 5 If you’ve got a question, hot take, or your own Almost Athlete moment, head to AlmostAthletes.com or call [phone]. Upload your own fan fails here: https://new.myharbourshare.com/agree/gSttAsmDbo6vYCfm3HBdjh?fbclid=PARlRTSARDo7VleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAafRqYdnXc6xTmfPMNERbnp5yfF-BqLSY3NCu2GQZSehgOTgD69fSBeTqTcAQg_aem_RWLUmW87bcZIif3zTrWKBg Apple: Stay closer to the game. Download the Apple Sports app for free in the app store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-sports/id6446788829?pt=2003&ct=sad-P3001842-C3003631&mttnagencyid=c1a&mttnpid=wave&mttnsubad=srvs-spa-P3001842-C3003631&mttnsubplmnt=NA&mttncc=US Download Cash App Today: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/mar90qgg #CashAppPod Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Cash App Green features, Savings, Direct deposit, Round ups, Overdraft coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. Go to https://shadyrays.com/ and use code ALMOST for 50% off 2+ pairs of polarized sunglasses. #almostathletes #dudeperfect #cooperflagg #nba ▶ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@almostathletes?sub_confirmation=1 🎧 Listen anywhere: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/almost-athletes-with-dude-perfect/id1834502483 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/55gaQm31JIbp6td7QtYsPU Almost Athletes with Dude Perfect is (almost) a sports podcast. Co-hosted by Garrett Hilbert and Sparky, with the rest of the Dudes, their wives, and the DP crew popping in throughout the weeksports takes, celebrity guests, athlete interviews, fan voicemails, and the kind of chaos you'd expect from the Dude Perfect family. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Go Big and God Bless Pound it 👊🏻 Noggin 🙇🏻‍♂️ - Dude Perfect Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You guys ever got in the fist fight? Oh, yeah. Who wins? It's changed. I think the first one we ever had, we were out in the driveway playing. I socked him and ran. Yeah, foul, whatever. I came out and I'm throwing haymakers, and he just, boom, right in the face.

And I ran. And I ran inside crying. That was a bad day. Clockton. I was proud of that. I was proud of that. Welcome to Almost Athletes with Dude Perfect, A Wave Original. Follow the show on all social media at Almost Athlete.

like and subscribe to us on YouTube or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We're your host. I'm Garrett. I'm Sparky. And he's coming to you live from Charleston, South Carolina. Sparky's already on tour. We start Thursday. Sparks, tell him about it. Yeah, dude, fired up squad games tour. Starts Thursday. We're getting our rehearsals in. Boots on the ground here in Charleston. Great little spot to be this summer, Charleston, Carolina. I'll tell you what, pretty right now. But yeah, dude, it's getting real, really fast. If you haven't got your tickets, you better jump on it. You just saw us beat WWE and five to get us primed and prepped for this tour. You're coming out with the boys later on tonight. We're going to rehearse a couple

days, swing the golf clubs, and then we're going to go and hopefully sweep the Harlem Globetrotters rock the bat, set the tone on tour. That may be a little ambitious, but before we get to that, dude, we got a special guest today. Cooper flagging his twin brother ace in studio, but first, America's got World Cup fever sparks. Let's talk about it. Yeah, like a 102.5 fever. I learned a lot, honestly. I didn't know that, you know, we had so much beef with Australia.

It was a physical game, wasn't it? Yeah, they were going at it. Their entire nation is blind. So that's crazy. Because some of the things they were saying about that game, I'm like, were we watching the same game? Maybe I'm the blind one, but like, I've watched.

a lot of football soccer in my life. Not one time would that handball be called a handball ever in the history of any game I've watched. Not one time with the incidental contact in the box when he was running and the dude cuts him off and he clips him in the Achilles would be called a penalty. Not one time. Now I will say, I think the ref lost the game on both sides. He could have easily given USA a bunch of yellow cards.

That might have changed the physicality of the physicality of the. the game early. But like when they're just saying that it was a one-sided thing, they're calling out the ref for fixing the game, which he does have a past history, which I read about, which is just kind of like kind of nuts. Yeah, back like 20 years ago, got suspended for Max fixing that same ref. But again, you know, I felt like we dominated the first half. Second half, Australia came to play.

I mean, they were, they were hard to get through on the back line. They're a tough matchup. Like, I don't think, I think if they finish third, the first place team who has to match up with them, like, they're not going to like that. They're a physical team. They're really good. I just think USA this year has a better roster. Yeah, yeah.

That's, you know, that's kind of weird for us to say that we're the, you know, the better the soccer nation between the two. don't think there's any doubt. And I was actually about to say that I feel like the soccer roos are U.S. soccer 20 years ago where most of their juice and energy comes from just purely effort. Those guys played hard. And no mistake in that, like they're getting the most out of their talent. And that's what made him such a tough bunch. But to your point, the ref kind of let some stuff go early and set the precedent that the 50-50s weren't going to get cards. And the players took and ran with that. Now that the U.S. is through, though, you know, it's a good problem to

have, but Thursday night, ultimately, there's, there's not much on the line at all. You could lose by 10 goals and you're still going to win the group. With that said, do you fully expect a full different lineup? Of course, the guys with Yellow's desk, you know, Richard. They're going to sit out so they don't accidentally get the yellow card accumulation and miss the round of 32. But is that, is that the approach you would take if you were poach? Yeah, you sit Balligan for sure. He put hajie right up. I would even sit Peppy after he put a good 73 in versus Australia.

You get Aronson in there. You get a couple of these guys to get their legs moving. I still think you try to go and win the game. I mean, I don't know why you I don't know why you want to kind of just like lose that feeling of what winning soccer games is. But like you got to sit the right people.

Like I wouldn't sit freeze. Like I think he still needs He needs to get tested a little bit. I'm actually hoping Turkey can rip a couple shots at them. I mean, they've been ripping shots this tournament. I mean, what, 60 shots recorded in two games or something crazy? And how many goals they have? Zero.

Isn't that incredible? I don't know what I'm more shocked by us winning the group after two games or them being eliminated from the tournament after two games. I mean, they were a nice little kind of a Cinderella pick to maybe reach a quarter final. I think we look good. But again, the tournaments just started. Like we can easily go into that knockout round and lose.

Like we have to keep the foot on the gas. To me, getting to the 16 is that's kind of the bot. Like that's the expectation at this point, right? They played themselves into that. That's like you didn't do good. You didn't do bad. You did as expected. You got to the final 16.

Now, if you can win that game and go to the quarters, you're like, okay. Like we overperform. That was worth getting. That was worth getting. That was worth getting Pocitino in to get to the final eight, you know? Yeah, I think that was me and you. That's what we talked about months ago. Like what would be your realistic, you know, aspiration goal for this team?

And I think we both agreed that. Like, if you made a quarter final, that would be a great step forward. I do want to mention something. USA continues to be a great host. All these Euros are obviously loving America. But I just want to tell the American fans and the international soccer community, let the fans fan. I feel like there's been a lot of judgment

towards USA soccer fans. It is obvious that, you know, we're a little behind on how to celebrate, how to chant, that kind of thing. And instead of calling it out is cringe or trying too hard, we've got the training wheels on here,

America Soccer does, and we're growing, we're getting better, let us keep the training wheels on. You know, it's not a bad thing that they're seeing in country roads and stuff. We're trying to, We're trying to figure out how you do soccer the right way.

You know, I, you know, the rest of the world, they're haters. I get it. We have three other sports that are best athletes go and play. If you had the best American athletes play strictly soccer. We would never lose a game ever in the history of the world, ever. Could you imagine like prime Calvin Johnson in between the pipes as a goalkeeper? If LeBron James grew up having a ball at his feet and he's a physical special special, specimen. Yeah, dude, we're seven foot tall. We can run like strikers and we're physical. Yeah,

no one would beat us. And we, and we would have 50 inch verticals. It's like imagine every player in your team can jump higher than Christian Ronaldo. They can run as fast as Christian Ronaldo, and they're eight times stronger than him. Tyree Kiel at Stryker. Yeah, do, yeah. Good one. Defenders keeping up with him, you know? Yeah, I mean, I mean, again, like, if the U.S. can continue to get better at soccer. And if they go to the semis, it's a bad look for the world, in my opinion. It's like, dude, do your job better

because USA's coming, baby. Yeah, we are. And I've said in the basketball community that the French, Canadians, they're closing the gap in basketball, but the same can be said for us in international football. I think we're closing the gap.

You know what? I take this like what, how England is viewed in the world of soccer. to me, England should walk away with this tournament. They're too talented. They have so much. But the deal is, they have the best league.

And weekend, week out, they just beat, beat each other up. It's the same as the NBA. Like these guys that go to the Olympics and play in these things, it's like, if it was just the straight up 10 best NBA players like Americans versus France, Spain, whatever,

it's not again. it's not even close still. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. It's just at the end of the day, like these guys are wearing their bodies down for capitalism, you know? Yeah,

for capitalism, baby, for capitalism. Also, like, dude, when you get a bunch of superstars like that, like the English have, sometimes we've seen it in Olympic basketball where it can kind of be hard to know your role

when every player is a given superstar on their club team. You know what I mean? And I feel like that's where the USA is doing a really good job right now, is I feel like Poach has that team chemistry at an all-time high. The way they're celebrating, the way they're communicating, the way they're all bought in. You see the reserves who aren't even playing

are just dialed in, cheering for their boys. I've said it before on almost athletes. Don't underestimate the power of continuity and chemistry and team sport. It matters. It's been an electric tournament. Every game, I mean, Cape Verde is, maybe Spain is not as bad as we think.

Cape Verde is just really good. Insane 2-2-draw. Yeah. Like, I, you know, it's been good. That guy that's predicted the last three World Cup winners.

I don't know if you've seen this. No. He predicted the last three winners. This year, he predicted the Netherlands will win it. They look good. They look the part. So honestly,

if I had a dream Final Four, if I could just pick, I don't even know how the matchups work. So, like, but France, England, Netherlands Argentina maybe

Spain Spain In Spain Those are like Those are like Those would be like just Both those games would just be Wow

I mean And then in tier two I have it written down over here In that second tier right behind that I have Japan Mexico Belgium who's underperformed a little bit Two draws Norway and the US

Hotter in their heels As that tier two side I think a lot of it's going to come down It's going to be dependent on matchups and how the brackets fall because there's so many different possibilities, you know. Oh, yeah. It's going to be interesting, man.

I saw online where a couple people were saying the expanded format wasn't working, and I think the complete opposite. When you have Kate Verdee doing what they're doing, Turkey being out, there hasn't been many other than the Curacao Germany 7-1 score line. Other than that, pretty much every game's been competitive. But man, how fun has it been?

It has been such a joy. I have watched so much soccer the last couple weeks, and I plan to watch a lot more. Yeah, it's been, it's just getting started, dude. Like the tournament's not even really, really started yet. And shout out to my sister, who's not a soccer fan, but bought like a World Cup wall chart thing,

and she's all United States out, and she doesn't know a lick. I'm teaching her outside and handball, but it's pretty cool. I saw a funny tweet that was like, man, shout out to those group chats, who said that soccer's the worst sport in the world, blah, blah, blah. And then two weeks later,

they're talking about how the coach needs to bench politic and rest the guys. They're like bought in. And I'm like, it's so true. All these group chats are like, dude, I hate this sport. And they're like, dude, like, what kind of formation are you? What kind of formations you has running right now? It's like, what is wrong with you, dude?

Why are we running four-four-toos? Yeah. They learn the game and they've only played FIFA for the last five years. That's great. Do you think that curiosity and interest in the game is going to last beyond the World Cup? I really do think it's dependent on how the rest of the tournament plays out. I think there's a fire that hadn't been had in the States in a long time, just given the fact we're hosting.

But I feel like if they can do some kind of miracle on ice, no pressure. And I don't even think they have to win the whole thing. But the further they advance, the more they captivate that patriotism from America. I mean, because the USA's bought in. There's not a person I know that's not enjoying this right now. So it was the same as, you know, the U.S. hockey this year. Same type of thing. It's like, man, when the USA is kind of rallying, we've lost that as a.

nation, man, you know? That's why this stuff's important, man. That's why sports where you're headed with it. They bring people together. Sports are just, you know, it's a unifying thing from all backgrounds and religions and politics. But when you put USA across your chest, man, we can rally around that. So I personally love it.

I think it's great for the nation. When honestly, we need it. We need the USA to go on Iran because we're a divided country right now. So leave it to soccer. to bring the world together. Sticking with the USA theme, dude, did you watch any U.S. Open this weekend? I did.

Kind of, it's weird because I'm typically a big golf fan, but the World Cup kind of took my viewing pleasure a little bit. But so I tuned in, the lack of fans was kind of concerning to me. I don't, I mean, there was like. Is that because the layout of Shinnock or what? I don't know.

Layout, hard to get to. weather was kind of bad World Cup fever. I don't know. There was a lot there. But hey, congrats to Wyndham Clark, man. I mean, goes from, you know,

kicking in a locker at Oakmont a year ago. What a character arc. What a character. I mean, he knew it. He's also worn it. Like, I love the fact.

I had a group text, honestly, they were bashing the guy. Like, dude, anybody but him. I don't, I can't stand that guy. I'm like,

I mean, look, he, out of the competitiveness, he punched through a locker, he apologized, he got fined. He got kicked out of that club. Like, I don't know, man. Like, it's like, what do you want the guy to do? Like, go work. He missed a cut at a U.S. Open, man. I've slammed my driver at a municipal in Frisco, Texas. He's allowed a little grace.

I'm with you. But he, I've never seen a putter so hot, man. He was making ever, like, when you thought he was going to be like, okay, here he comes. he's going to crumble is like, makes it 25 footer for par. You're like, okay. Yeah, that par five he had on the final day. He scrambled and got the bird. I mean, congrats to that guy.

I mean, he, uh, and look, two-time U.S. Open champ, baby. 23 and 26. I don't mind people, like, I don't mind a villain. I think a villain's a good thing in sports. So if he wants to wear that and people want to boo him and talk trash. I was about to ask you about that. How do you feel about that?

Because Scotty went to the press. are obviously everybody's sharing for Scotty. If Scotty won the U.S. Open, that completes the career grand slam. How do you feel about the golf community cheering against Wyndham or if he'd find a bunker they would cheer? To me, I don't mind fans doing that kind of stuff. Not necessarily in golf, though. A sport kind of predicated on etiquette and things like that felt, yeah,

even Scotty was like he didn't feel too cool about that. Yeah, I think in person, I think it may be a little too aggressive. I think at home, I think most people weren't cheering against Wyndham. They were cheering for a tournament. They wanted drama. He was up by, you know, six shots. Like, you have to have him kind of go to the bunkers and hit errant drives. Like, if not, it's just a boring Sunday.

So like, to me, I wasn't necessarily cheering against him. And when he made that putt on 16 for that birdie putt, over the hill, dropped it in the cup, I was like, dude, I mean, congrats to the guy. He went out and earned it. He earned it. You know, but I would have left. love to see him and Burns in a playoff. Again, nothing against Wyndham.

It's just, I love drama. So, like, I don't know if people were actually cheering against Wyndham, or were they cheering against the fact, like, we want our beloved Scotty Sheffler to be put back into this thing. I don't know. It's a, but I agree. Live is a little. It's a little tough, but they probably just wanted a tournament, like, to your point,

I think people just wanted the competition. I know TV ratings had to be down a little bit this year at the U.S. Open, given the fact there was a six-stroke lead. Yeah. Tough time for a U.S. Open, though. Father's Day, World Cup. You're also navigating through some baseball, which even admittedly is taking a little bit of the backseat.

It's in the car seat in the back. We still check on it. Give it some nuggets here and there, you know. But yeah, it's, yeah, the World Cup's been taken over. One last note on Wyndham, I had to check because it's just such a unique first name. According to AI overview, guess how many Wyndums there are in the USA? Spelled that way.

Wyndham Hotels? I don't know. there's not a lot maybe but first names how many 200 218 according to AI overview a total in the United States I bet you see an uptick after his second US open title that's kind of funny might name my first kid wind him if I ever had a kid it's a good name yeah name I also love the fact how his dad surprised him that was a cool moment oh I didn't see that I love that spark he's picking out baby names already we haven't even started spark in the dark a little early Spark in the dark.

It hasn't come yet. Yeah, there's an order of operations. I was about to say, name my dog, but we already have Mooshu. So, yeah, maybe Wyndham will be my second dog's name. But yeah, congratulations, Windham, man. That was pretty cool. And like you said, really cool to see him blow up last year with the locker incident. And then character arc is way back, you know, to another major championship.

Really cool. For sure. For sure. Caps it for me. Cap tip for me. One thing to keep the eye on, at least for the Dallas Stars fans that are, uh, that are listening to this podcast, the Brady Cachuk got traded to Florida to play with his brother.

Well, what that does is they sent two first round picks to Ottawa. Watch out for Ottawa going after Robertson and trading some first round picks for that guy. Some draft compensation for him. I think Jim Nill might do that. It reloads the tank. It kind of switches up a little bit. We'd have trade pieces.

Watch out for that. I think the Brady Kachuk influences Jason Robertson, sweet stakes. That's all I'm saying to NHL. I just thought it was interesting move that happened on Father's Day. And how cool is it to play with your brother? I didn't even have a brother growing up. You know, that's all I wanted, much less play a professional sport with my brother. I'm the same team.

There's going to be some crazy fights. They're going to bring back old school hockey in Florida. So, all right, back to the NBA. We got the NBA draft. We did have Cooper. We did have Cooper come by, so that was kind of fun timing. But you expect any of the rookies getting drafted this year to make the impact that, like, Dylan Harper or Cooper flag or Wimby has made over the last three years? Whoa.

I mean on paper. Whoa, what happens? What did I do? Dude. Breaking news. Uh-oh. Michigan's dusty May finalizing deal to be Dallas. Mavericks head coach?

No way. Am I getting punked? That feels like an opposite day. That feels like a Monday opposite day prank by J.B. Can we confirm or deny that? Is that true? That's brand new. That's, that is.

Talk about a rise, man, from Florida, Atlantic, taking them to the final four, what, three, four years ago. And now he's gone to Michigan, one and Natty there. And now he's with the Dallas Mavericks. It's over, dude. It's done. I mean, I'm having inside sources from, which my inside source is my agent.

He's a Michigan guy. He's saying that it's a done deal. Wow. I'm cool with it, man. First reactions is let's do it. Yeah, I would kind of, I would have loved Shire. You know,

that would have been kind of cool to me. Just reuniting with Cooper. But I don't know if he wants to leave that cushy of a job. Like, he'll be at Duke forever. Yeah. I mean, Dusty May probably had. Well, Dusty just got off a, you know, a title and it's like,

it's hard to overcome, like, it's a good time if you're a college coach to, to leave a team after a, after a national title. Right. And with the portal and stuff, the college coaching gig has to be tougher than ever in terms of retaining your players, recruiting 24-7, 365, at least when you get to the NBA, it's just pretty much straight schematics player personnel. I'm in, though. I'm in.

Dustin May. Wow, Dustin May. Yeah, that's cool. Time will tell. I really, I was hoping we would have gone after, like, a New York's Knicks assistant head coach or something kind of experience. Look, coaching does matter. I know people don't think that, you know, NBA coaches do anything definitely matters in the NBA.

It's, you got to have the right guy, the right system. You got to know how to coach in the NBA. So like, this is definitely a big time. I mean, he came in and the new GM kind of shook him. he fired kid and then hired dusty may oof yeah um and so uh some there is some chatter that luka is basically saying you put a team around me now or i'm telling you dude all stars are pointing to him coming back home in two years i'm just saying just saying yeah felt like a one-way flight a couple months ago when all the sudden it's feeling like well

maybe he's got some you know some gold platinum miles building up and he'll be coming back home. I'll pick Luca up if he needs to pick up from DFO. I'll drive. I'll drive out of the Lain. Yeah, I'll give him my car. Yeah, I'll give him my car if he wants. I think he's probably got better wheels than I do.

But anyways, back to the rookies. Do you think this is a stacked class? It is on paper. It's supposed to be a stack class. I will say that Cooper Flagg was a fan of Oh, Fleming. I was about to say it. Little point guard.

So that will be interesting to watch to see if the then Mavs try to move up a spot or two. Yeah, we need a Caleb Down situation because you know I've been on that Fleming's kid for a long time. No, I just think you can use this trade pieces, dude. I think there's a way that Mavs can get there. I think the NHL offseason

and NBA offseason both are going to have quite a wild ride. I think there's going to be a lot of shakeup, a lot of movement. Well, we're on sports overload, and we got even more sports in-house. We got Cooper and Ace Flag in studio coming up next. The biggest tournament in soccer is finally here, and we're so excited to have games in the USA and right here in Dallas.

The world's biggest sporting event is just minutes away from us, but if it's not driving distance from you, don't worry. To make sure you never miss a single moment of the action on the pitch, you need the Apple Sports app. It's a free app that fits perfectly into your everyday life, making it easy to follow your favorite teams and get all the information you need as matches unfold. I know we're pulling for Team USA, but our mate,

Adam is going to be checking it every second of the day to see how England is doing. There's a main tournament tab that bundles everything together, live scores, stats, points, and rankings all in one spot. And if you're on the move, you can display live scores right on your iPhone lock screen to keep up with your favorite teams and just a glance. Stay closer to the game. Download the Apple Sports app for free in the app store. Sparks, I got a question. Yep. Have you ever fallen for a scam? No, but I almost did. But then I wired money to this print. and he promised to protect me? That sounds like a red flag to me.

Eh, you might be right. He blocked my text when I tried to schedule a royal visit. It sounds to me like you need Cash App to keep you safe. Tell me more about it, G. Keeping your money safe from fraud deserves to be a priority, and Cash App treats it that way. With security lock, Cash App requires a successful face ID or biometric authentication to access your account.

It's like your money is protected by your own personal bodyguard, even if your phone is lost or stolen. Plus, if you're about to send money to someone new, and Cash App notices something looks a little bit off or you might have fallen for a scam, it'll send you a warning before the money is sent to confirm that everything looks right. Turn on security lock in your Cash app settings today

and pay attention to scam warnings to keep your money safe from fraud. Learn more at cash.com. New Cash app customers can earn $10 if they use code Secure 10 in their profile at signup and send $5 to a friend within 14 days. Terms apply. Cash app is a financial service platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by CashApp's bank partners.

Visit cache.app slash legal slash podcast for full disclosures. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus, that signature, wait, for this price? Moment.

Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. Today's guest are two brothers who know a thing or two about competition. Growing up in Maine, they pushed each other every step of the way. One became the number one basketball recruit in America and a Duke Blue Devil. The other has been there through every part of the journey as his teammate and competitor and is currently a D1 player for the University of Maine. Shout out Black Bears. Fresh off his rookie of the year award and recently named Top 100 Most Influential People in Sports

by Time Magazine. Please welcome Cooper Flag and his twin brother, Ace Flag. Yeah, man. Well, boys, how are we doing? Fresh off, we've had a little fun in the office today, cranked out some socials. Really, did that feel like camp?

Did that take you back to camp? That was fun. What kind of camp? NBA rookie camp? Yeah, at least I don't know what an NBA rookie camp felt like. No way, it's like that. It could have been. A little different.

Just a tad. But it was fun. It was fun for sure. How old are you? 19. How old are you? I just want to see an ID. What are you?

Who was born first? Me, one minute. One minute. So he's the Kobe Cotton. Coup is the Corey Cotton. Man, that's tough to hear. I know. I'm sorry.

You can't go from a hundred, you know, top 100 most influential sports and then call him Corey Cotton. Yeah. That's tough. Your brother, man, he's been along for the journey. How special is it? One, to have a twin.

I don't know if y'all have the Cory Kobe chemistry. It's crazy. Some of that twin stuff. Yeah, you know, like, weighs up and learn the same thing. Do you have that? No. We do, like, we'll say the same,

like, catchphrase. at the same time we were going to the airport together and like the elevator was taking forever and like out of nowhere both were just like dude come on

yeah like same exact like style like at the same time we have so you don't wear the same stuff and like you don't send him a picture when you wake up for class and you're like dude check out my no I think honestly that's what the twins did

that's what our twins we try to do the opposite I think like when we were younger I was always wearing green he was always wearing blue and we were just trying to be as far separated as possible. Y'all best friends?

I would say so, yeah. I mean, I go back to this, like having a twin is like just a built-in best friend, built-in competitor, built-in, like, enemy, like someone to hate. Like, it's all the one. Sure, sure. We've gone through every phase. I want to play a twin game. Here's how it work.

I'll ask a question. You will take turns guessing how your brother's going to answer. So we're going to get the dry race boards out. Oh, okay. If you match, you get a point. And we'll see which one of you knows the other better. Oh, okay. So we're gonna start with you, Ace.

What is Cooper's favorite food, Ace? I don't even know if I know. It depends on the day. It's TechSmex for me, man. No way, that's it. No way, dude, there's no way. That's it. You're crazy.

Or? No, no, no, you gotta give it. It's not like a dumb answer. This is something. All, dude. Three. Hold on. I'm still ready.

I don't even know how he's spelled potato. Does anybody know how you spell potato? Oh, no. Is that right? I think you could go back to Duke. Yeah, I think it's still. Is that right? You can use it?

Can you help me out? I think so. I don't want to... I think so. You see how he's not cock? I hosted our spelling deans. Don't change your answer. Don't change your answer if you heard what I said.

I haven't changed the ones. Okay. If I had to say... It might be wrong. Potatoes. I don't know. Ready? Three, two, one, reveal.

The Shepards Pie. Shepards Pie? Steak and mashed... Isn't that the same thing? I mean... What do you say? Steak and mashed potatoes. Is that...

I mean, I must want to tell him. I must want to give them. a point because I do say that is my favorite food. That's my grandmother, shepherd's pie. Mm-hmm. I mean, he was confident. He literally like, shit. I know it. That's on me for not knowing myself. He threw it.

You gave him the best lob ever. You backroomed. I want to get it. All right, we'll give a point. Steak and Potato is very similar. So I'll give you the point there. I'll give you the point, too. That's that's, yeah. All right, Coop. What is Ace's favorite sports movie?

I mean, there's only one right answer. Die hard. Ready? Yep. Hoosiers. All right. Jimmy Chippoy. I think that would have been the answer for both of us.

Yeah. Is that really? Like that's a favorite movie. We had it in our old minivan and like the little flip-down screen. It's the long trips. Oh, you just over and over and over. And then the 85, 86 Celtics finals run. Yeah, I've actually seen you on record talking about that, man.

I love the fact that you kind of have that old head, unc, with all due respect. Larry Bird. Aspect to you, dude. That's, it was more. for my parents. Like they were obviously, you know, I think growing up in Maine, you're just a Celtics Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox, that's kind of how we just grew up, and my parents were, obviously,

Larry Bird is probably the greatest, if not, or one of the greatest Celtics of all times. So, I mean, even growing up, you didn't lose a lot in sports teams. No, I mean, it was, it really was your first year to lose. I don't watch a ton of football anymore. But growing up, like, being a Patriots fan, it was like I would just tune into the Super Bowl every year. I'll just watch the Super Bowl.

I have no recollection of a Super Bowl. Man, that's the same. What do we got here? All right, Ace, what is Cooper's go-to? Trick-shot or shot in horse? Oh, we haven't played horse in a while. But he does have this one cheesy move which he likes to do, which is just...

Can you not do that? I can. I don't know what he runs out. I imagine that I can't do it either. Whatever's on there. I think I'm ready. Three, two, one? I said a swish

You said dunk You love to go and do that I do like the dunk But I also like the switch Like I say No rim, no backboard That's true You have the switch

Yeah, and then I'll jump up And then I'll jump up and just like put it through Because I'm the only one that can just Easily get up there I'm gonna ask you a hard hitter here And your agent might not like me asking this But I'm asking it You're one of the best dunkers I've ever seen

You were doing some dunking at our place Thank you for that Oh yeah got you Are you gonna enter the dunk contest Or you just advise? I'm not advised not to. No, I'm not advised not to. I think they completely leave it up to me. I mean, look, dude, you should be the guy that brings it back. I mean, you throw some insane dunks together. So I think my biggest thing with the dunk contest was, I think I'm more of like

an in-game dunker. No, did I watch you out there? That was not an end game. You were throwing some crazy stuff. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think it's just when, like, when I look back at the dunk contest when I was growing up, like, it was the Aaron Gordon, Zach Levine. And they're doing stuff that I can't even dream of doing. Like they just had obviously one of the greatest dunk contests of all time. So I think I see that and I was like, I can't compete with that. So I just decided I didn't want to do it. But I don't know.

I think, I'm not going to say I'll never do it. I think, you know, maybe there's a time that I'll do it. I think the dunk contest has gotten a little too showy. And just the art of dunking has kind of lost its. And like what you do, I would say is kind of more old school, what more old school style of dunk contest, which is. put somebody through a rim, man. And I respect that.

So I say I'm more of an in-game dunker. Like, I love just confronting somebody going, you know, going over them. How does that feel before we move on our next time? Just dunking? I've always went in. It's like, oh, man, I can, like, get rim with my very tip of my fingers. But how nice is that? Yeah, it's very nice.

I mean, I remember when I was still just trying to dunk, but we would be in our driveway for hours at a time, like one after another, like both of us and our older brother, Hunter, just trying to dunk, dunk, like for like hours on end, just jumping up, trying to dunk like it it was a grind but once you once you get it and are able to dunk it's it's one of the best feelings both you all first time to dunk in a game

you got to remember it I dunked before him in high school no no no in high school in high school in middle school in eighth grade I averaged like five or six dunks a game that's true because it was different man yeah it was

I actually have like one of my friends made like a mix tape of dunks from our first ever eighth grade game and it was like a minute long and it was just clips of dunks. That's awesome. So it was just funny. Different levels.

High school, when we were freshmen, our first game in Maine, he did throw down a dunk before I did. Very first game. It was only dunk that he's ever had in a game since then. Yeah. In-house here, we talk about who took the most charges because none of us dunk going on. Yeah.

We had a nine-hage. Ace was a big charge guy. Yeah. All right. You're not taking charges. I don't take charges, so. But you'll help. guy up who does. You've been the first one over.

You got to. Yeah, hype him up. That's energy when somebody takes a charge, put their body in the line. That's awesome. I'm just not the one that's stepping over. I'd rather just try and block it. That's awesome. All right, Cooper. What is Ace's favorite junk food? And if you write down Shepard's Pie. That's not junk. Yeah, that's not junk, too.

Don't talk bad on my grandmother's Shepard's pie. Yeah, yeah. Junk. You're not going to put this, but you should. I'll get a point for this. He's going to give it to me. That's an odd combo. Exactly. Wait, wait, those are two seven. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I was like, dude, that's, you got problems.

That and that. Yeah, dude. Three, two, one, reveal? Tockeys and chocolate milk. This is so interesting that y'all both though, you put food and drink because I would never, if like I had to get Sparky's junk food, I'd be like, oh, gummy bears.

Okay, well, this is the store. So he is notorious for late night. goes down and grabs a whole bag of chips and then like, I can see where he's coming from with the ice tea because he'll order like, he come to stay in my place in Texas for a couple of days or to Chick-fil-A and orders himself like a gallon jug of iced tea lemonade

and then like just drinks it. But this one when we were in high school he would have talkies and chocolate milk. That's actually kind of a fire combo. No, no it's not. That's probably the most disgusting thing I've ever. The milk just cools it right down and you just get all the flavor. Bro, but first he wrote it. He wrote this out and he said Cool Ranch Ice

tea and I'm like, bro, you got a serious problem. That sounds like Doritos. I don't know like something we taste here. I would give him a half point for that because that was

it was a food and drink and it's chipping a drink. Same thing. So I give him a half point for that. This was about to turn in from an interview to like therapy. I was like I'm concerned a little bit brother.

What is biggest? Cooper's biggest pet peeve you know there's got to be something car right. You've mentioned stuff. Something he did in a What is my

biggest pet peeve. You don't have many. I do. I just don't think you're going to know them. You are a lot of them. Oh, there you go. I got clues now. Okay, I'll do this one because he's been saying it to me a lot. That's bad. I hope you're not writing something bad and saying that's about yourself. No, I've been saying you've been, I'll explain it. You've been threatening me. Yeah, that's a pet peeve. That's a pet peeve for sure. Tells me if I don't. I'm going under the underpass. Yeah. That's his line. Okay. Ooh.

And I stayed with him. You guys are cutthroat. That's my one rule. You guys ever got in a fist fight? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Who wins? Depends on the card.

I think the first one we ever had, we were out in the driveway playing. I socked him and rain. Yeah, foul, whatever. I came out and I'm throwing Hayman run, and he just, boom. Right in the face. And I ran. And I ran inside crime. That was a bad day.

Clockton. All right. I was proud of that. I was proud of that. Okay. Three, two, one. not cleaning up and that's it. That's it. All right we go.

Ace. I have to threaten him with that. Yeah, it's one of Garrett's pet peeve so I'll answer for. I'm an OCD clean freak dude. Okay, Ace with the slight lead here. A couple questions left. Cooper. What is the most embarrassing thing Ace did as a kid? Or now?

This embarrassing thing Ace did. Oh, there is an obvious one. Oh, I can't wait for this. I'm going to give him a hit because he's not going to think of it. Very young. You were very young. This is a good story, too. This is a good story, too. Very good for television. It's good for television. This is a ratings booster right here.

Whoa. I was actually just asked this by my kid the other day. Literally, I walked inside and they were like, Dad, have you ever done that? I'm like, why would I do that? Three, two, one? Aet slug.

I got to hear the next story. I was like three and I was just outside. Curious. So you didn't even know. So that's why it's more, I think more embarrassing because my parents will just bring it up and he's like, oh, like I was three years old

and I was just crawling around. and thought it was like a French fry, I guess. I don't know. I don't know. It happens. All right, so it's close. A, so I'll give, right now Cooper's in the lead. I'm just going to go off the thing.

I'll give you the win. If you can tell me the exact stats, your brother averaged last year as a maverick. Exact stats. Oh, no. Yes. You want me to write them down? And you can be like, you can be around.

You can be around. You can be close. I need stats, though. I need points per game, rebounds. Assists. Let's just go points per game and rebounds. Okay. Then assists.

And it's an assist. We might have to fact check, but I think it's... Yeah. I think that's about right. It looks like we want choose numbers, yeah. I'll go... I'll be trying to cheat. Yeah.

Go points. It's a tough four, by the way. I'd rewrite that. Is that a four? Yeah. Yeah. I just wrote number, number, number, number. Just go points, rebounds, assist.

You don't have to write at all up. It's still a tough. Don't change it, though. We'll see what the... All right, before you show, Cooper, explain yourself, flip it, flip it to the issue, you got it. I said it. What do we got? I said, 18 and a half points.

What was it? You're 21 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists. Oh, you under, that's a typical brother. In fact, you couldn't round it up your boards there, Coup. To seven. This is, this is a, this is a, this is a typical brother not giving the younger brother what he was. What was it? or 20?

21, 7 basically rebounds and five assists if you round up. Yeah, so I thought there was no way he was above 20, but... No way he was above 20. What? I don't think so. Wow.

That's... All right, well, we gotta give Cooper the win there, so I tried to give it to you for the win there, but Cooper... Edge is his brother out in the all you know about your brother game. A little girl with a big performance. Add off, dude, hey.

It's okay. Whatever. It's okay. I don't have it. I want to know. little bit about kind of what position we plan up in main? Power forward. Power forward.

And then I'll look for this for this main squad. We like this year. What are we looking like? Hopefully better than last. Yeah, we're looking better. We got a very, going to be very new. Lost a lot of guys. To NIL like people are transferring or graduation?

We had a lot of seniors. Seniors and a couple transfers. So it's going to be a new team. That's the tough part about, like especially the smaller college right now. So, I mean, guys will, like, they'll get guys that will have a great year, and then, I mean, they're gone. You can't hold on to anybody, especially when you don't have that NIO. It's so hard to make it.

I mean, you used to be able to, like, those smaller schools would have, you know, guys that would be there for four years. That was like your, that was what was the standard. It was the run and the Cinderella teams. It's all the experience. Exactly. Now you don't see that. With George Washington going all the way through.

It's like happening to my boys right now, North Texas, same kind of, same kind of boat. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're a feeder program to the bigger program. Which is tough. Because you can tell they genuinely enjoy their experience there, but at the same time, you've got to make a decision as an 18-year-old. And when you're getting offered five times the amount of money, it's hard to blame the kid, you know? You can't blame them at all.

It's tough. Wish we had got you on a visit from North Texas. I could have sold you, man. Well, yeah, dude, what about Ace, man? Yeah. Ace, more than welcome to it in Texas. You'd love it. They got a Buckees.

There's so much to offer. You never ever been to a buckies. Dude, we're selling you, dude. So there you know. I mean, I look, Maine probably has its name, but I'm Texas, dude, by family. No state income tax. Texas is a great program. Yeah, absolutely do.

Back to the business side of basketball, we were talking, we were doing socials, and you were talking about, we were asking about the trades and stuff that happened. And I jokingly said, I'm so glad on YouTube, there's not a trade deadline where it's like, oh, man, you might be getting moved to blippy. Is that like a tough, with all due respect to blippy, it's a culture thing. I wouldn't fit in there. Minutes would get reduced. With that being said, is that like eye opening to see the business side of it,

where a guy that you share a locker room with, you know, gain of friendship and the next thing you know, boom, he's going over to the East Coast. Yeah, I mean, you could be a random day, middle of the sea, like you just out of nowhere. Like you have no idea it's about to happen. So that's tricky. It is definitely tough.

Like guys that you come in with, especially, I mean, my first year come in and build, you know, all these relationships with. Like, these are the first guys I've ever, you know, shared a locker room with, you know, in this atmosphere. So, coaching staff included, you know, Jake, and all that. that.

Exactly. So it's tough. It's eye-opening, but I mean, you learn pretty quickly. It's a business at the end of the day. And, you know,

money is the most important thing to a lot of people. Yeah. We're huge admirers of the Dallas Mavericks, obviously, Dirk Nevinsky, probably our greatest.

The greatest. Well, the greatest MAV. Sure. I'm just, but he's up there for us and even like the all-time greats. What he did was,

he was kind of one of the last stayed out of team for his whole career. I know it's a little against your wishes, but you want to be a Dallas math for life? This guy always a great question. I got to go. It's date night and I didn't know you're going to stay so late.

Bro, we're talking to talkies and chocolate milk. Tockeys and chocolate milk. Dallas forever, right? I just hear you interrupted me. We're going to have to redo it. Yeah, dude. So anyways. Yes, sir. I would love it. The question is, do you want to be in that?

Would you like to be on one team forever? 100%. Yeah, I think I would, you know, like nothing, you know, more than that to be able to, I mean, you look at someone like Dirk, obviously, like his legacy, like there's nothing that touches that, you know, to be that loved by a city to have that much, you know, love and support from one place. Like, I mean, I don't think you could dream for anything else. Yeah.

But that, so I think, and that's the ultimate goal, but, like, we were just talking about it's, it's a business at the end of the day. And it's not going to be my decision, I don't think. I'm not, I know, I'm not going to have you answer this because it would get some politics involved, but I'm actually excited for you guys moving up north a little bit. You know, it's just closer to us. Yeah, it makes the drive for us to go see the Mavs a little bit better, a little bit easier. Coop, did you feel like you needed the offseason compared, like, of course, you had class

in the season there at Duke, but going to the NBA, the 82 game gauntlet. Did you feel like you were in need for an offseason, the wear and tear built up on you? For sure, yeah, I think, I mean, 82 is a different beast compared to, I mean, I think I played 30 games when I was at Duke. it's just a different beast and I think everybody is really ready for that off season and but I'm excited I'm excited looking into next year and I've had a little time off and I'm ready to get back to it. You all are still so young which is so crazy because you know you're still in college which you know and your career just started but you know go 20 years down the road here

are you all going to want to try to live close by like you think the family will stick together or do you? I think eventually. I think that would be cool. Yeah, I mean, I think it would be tough not to, but I mean, we'll see. At the end of the day, it all depends on, you know, what we all have going on. Obviously, you know, my stuff kind of depends more on, you know, where I'm at and playing and whatnot. And, you know, we'll see where his path goes and where that takes him. But, you know, I'm a, I think we're both definitely family-oriented people. Yeah, yeah, it's cool. Like to just have that family chemistry and vibe. And, you know, we have, you know, our people back home in Maine that we call our village.

So we have our village in Maine that we still connect with. But just growing up having that village and you're hanging out as a group on the weekends, the barbecues, and going to the lake together, stuff like that. It's just stuff that I don't think

that when I get old, I wouldn't, like I would want my kids to have the same thing and same type of support system. Speaking of barbecue, Texas barbecue, or Maine, I didn't even know Maine had barbecue.

Well, our father would get on the grill. Okay. He's a grill master, so. Do we get on there? Burgers and dogs. I mean, no offense to your dad here. Texas barbecue. That's not the same.

I'm not saying it's the same. The food is really good. And the portion sizes are the size of Texas. Yeah. Unbelievable. It's like, can you like just, I don't know,

cut this in half here? Do we need that? I remember the first time I came down, I did a workout. I came before the draft, I came for a workout with a team and I went out to dinner with some of the executives

and we were sitting there. We went to Bob Steakhouse. Yeah, good steakhouse. Oh, it's unreal. But we sit there, we have our dinner, whatever. I mean, unbelievable. And then it gets a dessert.

And everybody's like, I was kind of like, I got to work out tomorrow. I don't know if I'm having a dessert. I guess I'm small. I ended up just ordering like a little brownie Sunday. Like I'm like that, oh, you know, ice cream, brownie. It came out. It was five scoops of ice cream.

And the brownie was the size of the plate. Yeah. You ate all, though. No, I did. But I tried my best. And the workout the next day was, whew, I did good enough, though. Yeah, there is.

We take the whole, like, everything's bigger in Texas. We take that personally. We like to ride that lane. Yeah. Your mom, super athletic, main sports hall of fame. She the best athlete in the family? No. Do you all have arguments over that?

No. It's not even close. It was quick, dude. I think I was a little too quick. It's not even close. But she is. Pretty athletic. Oh, yeah.

She was. She was pretty athletic. She used to play. It's the place in the driveway with growing up. So this is the story. This is the story why I say she was pretty athletic. I think I was seven. And this is why I said, I've never beat my mom in a game of one-on-one.

So I used to play all the time. We'd be in the driveway, playing whatever. And I was seven years old this particular time. And I was up like seven to six. You know, we're battling. I mean, it's physical. It looks like the finals right now, honestly. Like that level of physicality.

And then, you know, I go to drive by her and she turns and she tore her meniscus. So she didn't count the play. She called off the game. And we never played since. so she says that I've still never beat her we're playing to 11 it was 7 to 6 me I mean I counted as a win in my book It was 8 6 really

I counted as a win in my book Yeah you can't wait you can't WD I'm sorry man it's a win Yeah I told her we can finish the game whenever she wants Whenever she's ready I mean it's not your fault her meniscus tour I'm just saying you know

Seven years old though tearing your mom's in That's tough dude Almost Hey Almost bad please You know what I've been thinking about a lot lately, G? That the NBA and NHL seasons are over.

You're watching way too much baseball. Well, there's no such thing as too much baseball, but that isn't what I was talking about. I was talking about my shady rays sunglasses. How are my shady rays basically the same quality as the $200 sunglasses I used to buy? That is a great question, because they feel every bit as premium

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Head to Shadyrays.com and use the code almost for 50% off 2 plus pairs of polarized shades. Try for yourself, the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. You went up a grade. Was there a reason? Yeah, I mean, obviously there was a reason. and after my sophomore year, I kind of just felt like, well, I'll say going into the summer after my sophomore year, I knew I wanted to have it as an option. So I took, you know, I talked to the people at school and I figured out the plan to have that option. And I took a class over the summer and then kind of felt out the rest of the summer. And then towards the end of the summer, I kind of just realized that I didn't think that there would be, you know, that much more that I could do in high school to better myself. You know, I just thought that, you know, getting to college and getting around that development and even if, you know, it was that I needed an extra year in college, I think just having that, you know, level of development and that sort of team around me was going to be best case scenario. And, you know, I'm just a competitor.

Like, I like, I think I go back to this quote that my mom says about being the best playing in the gym. And when you're in the best player in a gym, it means you need to find a new gym. So, I mean, it was just at the point where I was looking for, you know, the better competition and the development. and that kind of all led into making that decision. That's cool. You mentioned competition and as a diehard MFFL guy don't miss a game, Maverick fan. I think one of the greatest things I love about you is the competitive spirit and a friend told me the other day that you're a max level talent who plays like he's on a two-way and I love that. You take pride in just the fact that like hey at the end of the day we're hooping and I'm out there to win and two-way thing too. Yeah that's always been you know kind of

my thing and you know I think it goes to speak to how my parents raised you know me and ace I think both of us you know that same um you know competitive spirit of just you're out there you just play as hard as you can't own every single possession um you know it doesn't mean you can't be smart and you know use your IQ at certain times but you know at the end of the day you just want to go out there and play with 100% of your effort and leave it all on the floor and I've been doing that for as long as I can remember and honestly I've always said this like playing in the all-star games and stuff when it's kind of like you're not supposed to go 100%. It's tough for you.

It's always been tough for me. Like I find it weird to not just be trying to kill whoever's in front of me and going 100%. So it's definitely tough. Share a lot in common with Ty. I mean, that's how Ty approaches our dude perfect battles, which is absolutely insane. So I do remember, I think you said it earlier this year, this is the most you've lost in your entire life. Was that mentally pretty challenging? Because it's just different.

I mean, you've never been there. 100%. It was a learning curve for sure. And obviously you don't want to ever get used to or accept the fact that you're losing. But it's definitely a learning curve. I mean, you play 82 games, there's going to be a lot of losing.

Even in, you know, some of the good seasons that teams are having this year, like, I mean, some of the teams that made the playoffs are having 30 or 40 losses. So, I mean, there's going to be a lot of losing. So I think just having that learning curve of, you know, mentally be able to, you know, bounce back from bad performance, bad game,

you know, a little bit quicker than you do in college or things like that is definitely a learning curve. But it was definitely tough. Not only for me, I think, you know, my mom was one of the people that, you know, she struggled with it a lot too. I was just, you know, losing all the time. She didn't like to see me losing or, you know, have that in my mental. So, you know, she took it pretty hard as well. So we sat by your parents. It was early game.

It was probably game number 14, 15 of the season. And, dude, I mean, she was locked in on. every single play. Like, I mean, it wasn't like she was back there, just like, you're running four down twist, like, you're running four down twist. Yeah, hanging out, like, hanging out with people in the suite. Like, she was, she was locked in, dude.

She didn't visit her. I think she only missed five games all, all season. She traveled to every game and was there for all. That's pretty cool, though. That's special. That's commitment. That is. It was special.

That's cool. Speaking of commitment, Ace, do you ever reach out to your brother now that he's not doing school work and you still have to have it? That's got to be tough. You all the same age, you've been riding together. Now all of a sudden, and he's not going into class

and you're going into advanced biology. Does that ever get tough? You reach out to your bro? Yeah, but I did tell him the other day now that I'm going to my sophomore year. After my first class, he's going to be the least educated brother. Wow, yes, you'll have that over him.

I graduated. I graduated. I graduated early, you know. Did you? So you did graduate? No, I did. Okay. Any brains on graduating from Duke in one year?

I'm sorry. That would be. I was calling that one. I was like, that's a lie. Do you want to get it? I have any aspirations. I do. I do eventually.

I think it's always something that we talked about, you know, with my mom and stuff like that, she always kind of wanted us to. So I think it would be cool someday. I think with Duke, it's a little bit tricky sometimes because they don't offer a lot of online classes.

So just finding windows when I can, you know, get back on campus and take a class here or take class there on the off-season. Next J.R. Smith, dude. Yeah. In-coming, man. You just got to play some college golf, too.

Go back and play some college golf, man. I better watch out. Yeah. Just wait. Get the degree, win a national championship on a golf team? That'd be great. Unreal.

So golf, anime, what else do you? Off the court. Do you like anime? What's our strong interests off the court? I mean,

I think anime is up there. Golf, video games. I mean, pretty normal things for, I think, 19-year-olds. What kind of video games?

We're playing sports. We play sports-wise. I play 2K and FIFA. I would say. Okay, those are the two-most? Drafting yourself in 2K? Probably in the rec.

Are you in the wreck? More wreck. It's more my career stuff. Yeah, yeah, me too, man. Okay. I play a lot of the wreck with my friendship back on. I mean, that's the biggest thing with video games for me is just to be able to connect with, you know, the guys that I haven't seen in, you know, months. A thousand percent. You'll talk to my friends.

Y'all, y'all still squading up? Do you game with them? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We'll get on a good amount. What's your archetype on 2K? That's pretty cool you could build yourself on 2K. I actually tried.

So that was my first, I ended up making like six builds on the last 2K. and yeah but the first build I tried to somewhat model myself. My guy was like 6-10, a little bit of everything, rebounding, blocking shots, three ball, mid-range, dunking. So I try to do a little bit of everything, and it worked there. It was a good first build. I think you fit well with my two-way pass-first. And he's nice.

He's kind of got some point forward to him. We got to exchange gamer tags before. I got to be fun. Are you the only? Yeah, the spark is the guy that goes. Oh, yeah. You are. I game pretty late into the night.

They're past their prime, admittedly. Other than sports games, what do you play? Yeah, it's hard to compete with the kiddos nowadays. I think y'all would agree. Well, y'all are kiddos. Yeah, that's not what I'm saying. They're good. Man, when Fortnite first hit the scene,

I was feeling good about myself. Now these kids are building Taj Mahals in a matter of seconds. You just can't compete. I can't compete. As a 35-year-old, those days are past me. So what other games do y'all like? I like Eldon Ring. Eldon Ring.

Yeah. It's a big game. Is that more like campaign or is that like open world? Like a single player, open world. Oh, it's open world. Okay. I'm not into those much. I'll play them a little bit.

I'll play a lot of call of duty. Whenever those drop, I play the new one for a while. I'm trying to think what else. Play like random steam games sometimes. Okay. Like random games. Indeed. Oh, we're like computer.

We're like built more. I have a computer. I haven't built one. I got like a pre-built. I'm pretty, uh, the new. Xbox is going to be pretty interesting because it's going to be kind of Steam compatible, yeah. Computer based, sure. Yeah. It's basically a low-grade PC is what they're coming out with.

I mean, low-grade is going to be like $1,500. Sure. Well, yeah, as a guy grew up and now Xbox Live, I shouldn't be complaining, man. Y'all don't know that world, man. That was tough. I didn't have Xbox Live or Wi-Fi until I got to college. So it was like, yeah, pretty much like when they didn't have a dial up internet, man. WeChat? Is that a thing? Do you us have WeChat? Was that a thing? We had AIM messaging. AOL messaging.

You guys know what like a floppy disc is? Yeah. Really? Like I would show you and you'd be like, yeah, it's a floppy disk. You'd put into like a DVD player? You guys know like what a cassette tape is. Yeah, like a little. Yeah.

You guys are more cultured than your other generation, Gen Z ears out there. I mean, dude, it's a tough generation for you guys. Gen Z years, the ones that I know, Jackson, the guy that's on here. Yeah. He brings y' all down, dude. They're poor. It's not. Don't do that for Jackson.

Yeah. Jackson's his boy. Him and Jackson, they're tight, man. I'll tell you what. Gen Z's y'all roll together, man. Yeah, they do roll together. You the biggest gamer on the Mavs?

Probably not. I don't think I'm the biggest gamer. I think PJ plays a lot. I feel like every time I would turn my PlayStation on, he was always on 2K or something with his boys. Bewill played a lot. Brandon Williams played a lot. Max Christie plays a good amount,

which he actually plays a lot of golf too. stick. Christy is? Yeah, he's single-digit handicap, so he's pretty good. He can also

shoot the ball, man. He can. But he plays video games, gets an anime. Like, when everyone says, like, anime,

like, is it just Dragon Balls like, what do we watch? Because that's where my mind goes, too. To be fair, that's where my mind goes.

Maybe I'd like anime. What kind of show am I? What am I, do you want to know my Netflix? Give him an anime sale. Yeah, shout out to Country Rule,

I mean. Well, how do I watch it? How do you watch it? Oh. It's like Netflix It's called Crunchy Roll Yeah I mean you can watch it

Like Netflix has anime Like Crunchyroll That's where I go That's where you want to get You'll get most of them I mean it's a subscription So That's all right

He's kind of old You might have to have him Find the app store Too You're at it You unloaded a lot It's gonna go in the Crunchyroll dude

How deep do you go with anime Like Neon Genesis Evangelion Do you go to like Akira Like how far back Does it fuck go I'm not too deep into anime

Like I've watched A good amount of anime I've watched attack on Tyan 800 episodes into one piece Wait like you've watched 800 episodes That's what's called Yeah there's no no I'm like 800 episodes into it So there's like I think around 1,200 episodes

So I'm like 800 episodes I've been watching it since I was like a sophomore In high school So it's just a show that I always go back to and like watch Watch Naruto all that Demon Slayer watching that Okay There's a bunch of other ones but I don't get into like

There's a lot there's a I mean there's so many animas But I mean he definitely watches I think more than me. Yeah, I like to watch just like short, 12 episode, one season, animas that just pull at your heartstrings. Really, do they? Really? They're like emotional ties here.

Oh, man. Watch it. You're lying April, little romance anime. Okay. Oh, romance anime? Dude, I'll shed tears. I'm getting sold right now, dude. I love a bit of tears.

Oh, my. Everybody needs to cry. I just didn't know. I'd find that in anime. I'll shed tears. What's it called? Uh, your lie in April. Your lie in April.

And that's on Crunchyroll. Yeah. Wow, dude. By the time this airs, the day will already be celebrated. But what are y'all doing for Sunday, man? Holiday. You all know what it is? What is Sunday?

I can't believe it's y'all's holiday. Oh, Flag Day. Flag Day. That's insane, man. You already got your holiday? It's actually interesting. I think that it was at the state of Maine, they actually named June 25th as Flag Day,

but I think with two Gs. Yeah, they better two G's. That's still coming up too. It is, it is. Because that's the day I got drafted. June 25th. annual day. I think, right? Is that true, Ethan? Yeah. I don't know if it is. I think it made it a state holiday, I think. Dude, that's kind of sick. That was pretty cool. What's been the biggest adjustment

from living in Maine, the Northeast, to all the way here in Texas and the south? Of course, climate. Yeah. I mean, I think, as far as the climate, I think it helps. We lived in Florida for a couple years, you know, before, for college and then obviously now in Dallas. So that, that climate it definitely helped to, you know, give me there. But, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of changes. I mean, the scenery, like, everything is so different. But I think for me, lifestyle-wise, has been the biggest changes. Like, I mean, when I left Maine, I was 15.

I never lived without my parents, any of that stuff. So I think just moving away from home, you know, and just growing up really fast, it's a big thing. You're the first Mainer in the league in the association? I think so. I mean, I kind of count myself as it. I think Doug and Robinson, was born in Maine,

but he never lived a day in Maine. His family moved to, I think, New Hampshire right away, so he never really lived in Maine, but he was born there. I think there's been a couple other guys that have made it to be, like, the G League or, like, overseas pros, but nobody's ever had a real career for Maine, so it was pretty cool. Congratulations, what a train set out, dude. That's special.

Interesting. You mentioned Duncan Robinson, who took a long route. You, not so much. You know, I've been hearing about you for years since I was your age. really and the pressure that comes with that. Is that something that you look back on and you feel like you've handled that with grace or some of those expectations unfair? Did you embrace it?

But just being such a polarizing athlete that early in your life. Yeah. They're pros and cons to that? 100%. You know, I think there's a lot of cons that come with. There's obviously a lot of pros as well. I mean, there's so many opportunities that I've been so blessed to kind of have and be able to have those experiences.

But yeah, I think it's definitely, you know, it's been tricky at times. Obviously when you're younger and you know you're on social media and there's a lot of good that comes with that But you know as you said there's a lot of cons as well and can be a lot of bad things so just learning how to block out all that noise and I think from a younger age I learned how to just Care about my family and and the people you know that were in my tight circle and and their opinions and you know outside of that I kind of Could care less when anybody thinks or what they have to say about me. So I think that kind of goes into dealing with the expectations and the pressure sure and I'm just trying to be the best that I can be and I know that I have the support of you know my family and my circle around me so since y'all are from Maine we'd like to test your

knowledge of your home state's brethren so we had AI put together a list of the top eight most famous Mainers and we want to see if y'all can guess correctly you get three strikes let's see who's your first pick number one Stephen King bingo on number one on the list Stephen King like the author didn't know that you know another Stephen King I didn't know if they're Stephen King baseball player or something, you know? That does kind of feel like a third base for you. He's like, yeah, he's a closer for the hot start. One for one.

Stephen King, that is a great pool because I don't know like a famous author from Dallas. I'm going to be 100% honest. I know like one city in Maine. Total. Augusta. And that's about it. That's the capital. I don't actually know a city in Maine.

I wouldn't have guessed it. I'll go next. Okay, I think I know somebody that will be on there. Probably I'll go with Dana White. Checking in number seven. Number seven. Mm-hmm. Oh, God.

Dana White's from Maine? Okay. Wow, y'all got some famous people up there, dude. I think I know another one who will be on there, Patrick Dempsey. Patrick Dempsey, number three. Dude. You came to play, bro. He's from, yeah.

Shout out, Grace Anatomy, man. Love that, love that show. Great show. Yeah. Three for three so far, and I'll give you a clue. I'm not on the list. I'm not on the list, personally. I swear that I was going to be my next show.

I have no idea. There's a long name in there too. I don't know what that name is, but it is long. Long is in the name, actually, which is funny about that. Long is in the name? No idea. No idea. I have one more.

Dude, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Anna Kendrick. Anna Kendrick number two. Really good pool there. How do you know? Dude, what in the world? I mean, this is like it, though.

You got this list and then... There's a couple more hard hitters. Can we give them clues like first name? Okay. Number five's first name, Aaron. E-R-I-N. It's a girl. Andrews?

Aaron Andrews? Number five. Aaron Andrews is from Maine? Yeah, don't judge the size of the state. Judge the size of the celebrity. This is a special list right now. I didn't know y'all were packing heat like this. I didn't need it, dude.

I'm shocked. Yeah, okay. Can we get the sixth day? I want to hit her first name on that one. Henry. Oh, I mean Oh, Henry Longbottom Close

He did say Long was in the Yeah, he didn't Yeah Oh, I have no clue Henry Yeah, I have no idea Um, Longstaff Henry

I know Henry Longstaff Henry Longstaff Henry Longstaff Henry Long Adams Henry Long Number six is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poet

Oh And this was not a Sparky generated list This is AI, so if you have issues with it, there's a bigger problem in hand. I've never even heard of him more if it was sparking me. Number four, I'll give a clue. Not PGA tour, but the other league, golf league, that's the first name. L-PGA?

No. I think he's going after Liv. Liv? Yeah. Oh, so I was thinking, live? Oh. The first name is Liv. L-I-V.

It's not Liv-E-Done. Nope. I'll give another hint. Aerosmith. Oh, it's an Aerosmith. Oh, his daughter. What's his What's her

What's uh Doesn't help me Stephen Oh my gosh I'm blanking on his last name dude Tony What's Tony's first name Oh Tyler

Liv Tyler Liv Tyler Comes in number four I was like Stephen I was gonna say Stephen Adams I was like that's not it Hey if y'all haven't seen it Best movie I think out there

Armaged A little bit Yeah you think so I would have trusted a sparky Created list more than I What's the name of the last one I get that a lot Judd

First name Judd Judd J-U-D-D Sports player This might be a little bit before Cooper's time I think it's before

all of our time I don't know I don't know who this person is actor Oh Judd Appetah Close Judd Nelson

Number 8 That was close though You're close I can't even believe I pulled out Jud Appetaw dude What shot

Me the most He didn't make the list man What's up with that I mean dude You were You were more famous and Henry Longbottom, or whoever that guy was.

That was a ridiculous pool by Chad GBT. Incredible, though. Maybe so. You couldn't make the list. Hey, you got a bright future. Stick with it, man. I think we'll come get down on that he says. I really do. First they had to get top 100. Now he's going to be top eight in Maine.

All right. Last game, and we'll get you out. This is a good one. Perfect. Here's how this one works. You're going to each build a basketball team with a point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center. Ace, you get the slate of NBA players.

past and present, Cooper, all Duke players. Oh, okay. Retired or current. This is fun, man. So, Ace, point guard, who are we putting?

Do they have to be current players? No, or past. It doesn't matter. I'll go Magic Johnson. Yeah, it's a pretty good one. I forgot. Bro, you got to, hey, love your school, dude. I do.

I love my school. Yeah, I'm not going to have trouble with this. I'm going to go with Kyrie Irving. There you go. There's my one. That's a teammate as well. I mean, it's just... He seems like a really cool guy.

Oh, he's unreal. He's unreal. I actually don't know who wins this one right there. I know people are going to make magic's the best point guard of all time. Well, shooting guard. Shooting guard. I mean, I'll go JJ Redick. Better than your coach?

I do. Who, Shire? I mean... Would you classify him as a three? See, the only reason I'm away from Shire on that one is because Coach Shire didn't have, you know, a... I was long of a career in the NBA. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It didn't work out as well for him. But, I mean, JJ is one of the best to ever do it. Yeah, that's a really good call. The best shooters. He was a guy who understood the pressure of the college. Oh, yeah. When he was going to, like, Maryland and stuff growing up, and they would start those chance and stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. All right, Ace, action on you. Can I just take Curry and put them there? Yeah, you can. It sounds better than Wesley Matthews. I love Wesley Matthews. But Steph Curry, good pick there.

Very good. Small Ford. I'm going to go with... Go with Grant Hill. Yeah. Oh, good pick. Good pool. I mean, come on, dude.

LeBron. LeBron games. Yeah, I think Grant Hill takes that one. I like Grant Hill. I'm just more of a Kobe guy, so. Okay, at the four, am I allowed to put myself in this? 100%? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Oh, man, I mean, I already missed out. No, you can go back. No, I don't want to change anything. I'll just put myself, I'll put myself at the four. Yeah. Well, I played the four at Duke a little bit. Actually, I mostly play the four, so I'll take that. I'll go.

Mr. Fundamentals, be Duncan. Timmy D. A big fundamental. Yeah. Center. There's a lot of options here. Do you know who you're going to go with?

Yeah. How you can go. Check. Check diesel. I'm just so glad you didn't put Wimby. What I hated your entire team except Curry. I'm going to say, I'm going to say Marvin Bagley. Okay.

The teammate. Marvin Bagley. Is lively a four, technically? He's a five. He is a five. Okay. Ooh, I didn't even think about it. live. We got a lot of people, but I'm happy with my list.

I'm happy with my list. I'm a solid five. Yeah, I think yours wins, dude. I do too. Give me aces. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I know, dude. I just, Tim Duncan. Yeah, and Marv's going to have a hard time there with Shaq. Yeah. You could also go to the foul game early on, you know, a free throw game. You could go to the foul game, dude. That's, uh, J.B. doing J.B. things. That's our two-minute warning where we get a chance to rant about anything. Anything fresh on y'all's

mind, y'all want to get off? Any like anime shows that you want to rant about or? Yeah. Yeah, there is. ReZero. It's coming out right now. New episodes every Wednesday. That's a boy. Great, great. Namesless flow. What about you,

Coup? Cool. Guilty pleasure. You guys have any guilty pleasures? Really kind of your rant's open to anything. More of that sometimes disgriefences that you have? I'm not like Cody. Cody's guilty pleasure is watching all the like, uh, um, the, the love shows on the cruise boats. What are those called down, uh, blow deck?

See, I was going to say, I've been watching Love Island. That was my son. Oh, you're like, Cody. So Cody likes to watch a little bit of, uh, he always blames it on his wife. Like, my wife wants me to watch The Bachelor. I'm like, no, she doesn't. You're the one encouraging that in house. But at this point.

Okay, so your, your little guilty pleasure is a little. Love Island, you know, new season just started up. I got a little thing to, at, to, uh, we're going to do our own Love Island, actually. It's going to be called spark in the dark. Spark in the dark? Yeah, when you're watching that show, are you looking it through the lens? Like, man, I feel bad for these guys.

Barkey, dude. I'm trying to pitch the show, dude. Yeah, yeah. I was just wondering if he looks at the Love Island and like, man, that guy's a sorry sack, you know? Or is it like you look at it and you're like, man, there's hope for him. Yeah, hope for me, Cooper.

That's what I'm asking. Sparking the dark, I think we should run it. What is the premise of the show, though? It's kind of the same thing. You know, we're trying to find Sparky Lovey Love Island real quick. Who do you want to get eliminated? Would I want to get eliminated?

Oh man, that's because sparks some controversy. No, it's okay, though. I'm going to go a different route. I'm going to say who I want, I think they shouldn't have eliminated and I wanted to win, but he already got booted off. His name was Sean. Sad for him, he didn't find love, but, you know, he played a great game. He was there for the right reasons.

I mean, he just got to show support. So sympathize for you. You're not in on these love shows yet, are you? No. Yeah, hey, stay strong, dude. Don't, don't, just watch your anime. Who do you think is there for the wrong reasons? I don't even know what Love Island's about.

Is it just an island where people go and you're trapped on an island? Yeah, so it's like five girls, five guys, they go, and then you like do like different challenge days and stuff. Oh, it's like big brother. You couple up, you couple up and then like you just talk to everybody and continue to like talk. And then they'll bring in like, they call them bombshells, like new people. to try and take their girls or their guys and stuff like that.

So it's a lot of drama. It's a lot of drama, but it's fun. Wow. All right, dude. Well, one last thing, Gare. It's a new thing we did. We hung a goal behind you. We'd love for you to take a trick shot.

Oh, it's way behind you. Right behind you, there's a goal. Left or right hand. Yeah, you can get your reference. Now, the last one's worth two, but we're going to keep an updated leaderboard going on for our trick shot. Two points. The fifth ball is.

Oh, so I'm trying to make as many as possible, bro. Okay. That's good. A rim hitter off the bat's nice. Tip number two. He's just off. Same spot. Same spot. Same spot. Just a bit. Just a bit. Just a bit. Yes. No, same spot.

Wrong way. That was the wrong way. Two more shots. Just the same spot. Just kissed it in off the glass. That was the plan. And the fifth and final money ball up and off. I mean. I like to see you try.

Do you want to keep ripping them? You think you got it in you? Need a rebounder. Let's see what we got here. I don't know if we have enough digital film for that, dude. It's going to turn into time. Left hand, that's what I had to do. I don't think it's left hand, dude.

Yep. Yeah, seven. Tip number seven. Was that seven? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So I don't know how many people are beating that. That'll put you on the leaderboard.

You were a big dude perfect fan growing up. Yes. Favorite dude. Act like Garrett's not here. Oh, yeah, doesn't matter. We don't care. We go the least favorite. Yeah.

And if you need to go the least favorite. Ty? I think the kid and me the competitor him wants to say tie okay okay gotta give love to the tall guy oh no he Jones

okay wow I like twins I mean you were twins yeah that's where I thought we were going I thought one we took it

did you like it's not like a thing where it's like do you like I mean you guys were just a likeable group like you can say if you hated me I don't care I mean just yeah it was just

the dudes we actually we actually I ask people that come to our show, we ask who the least favorite dude is. And it's hilarious, because some of those young kids will quick rip it. Cody. And I'm like, yep. That's a good parenting. That's a good kid.

It's just, like, terrified that we asked this question. The kid just, I mean, didn't even think about it. Just like, Corey, we're just like, I give a reason why. No, dude, literally just, I mean, just. We just move on. Those bad, yeah. Some kids will say the hair. And I'm like, no, you know, you're making a valid point.

Favorite Cotton Brother, if you had to pick one. I love this. Corey. Kobe, okay. House divided. Corey is younger, correct? No, yes. Corey's younger. Yes, you're out. No minute. Corey is younger. Twin number two. That's my guy. Younger brother.

Looks like our time is up. Again, thank you to the flag brothers. Best of luck going forward, boys. If you like this video, be sure to check out our start bench cut with Tim Tebow right here. We'll be back next Wednesday with an all new web. You want to sign it off. That's a big honor. Yeah. I ran it with a pound it. Noggin. See ya. Had a baby. Wave.