The Dallas Mavericks come into the 2025-26 season with a renewed sense of much-needed optimism following the bad taste left behind by the shocking Luka Doncic trade. A big reason for that sense of optimism this season is the arrival of prized rookie Cooper Flagg whom the Mavericks selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Before Cooper Flagg begins his rookie season with the Mavericks, he’s already secured multiple big endorsement deals, including one with Topps Cards, the official licenser of NBA trading cards. But during a recent on-camera segment with Topps, Flagg drew plenty of scrutiny from fans on social media, all in good jest, for his inability to recognize a few former NBA players via their trading cards.
Among the players that Flagg was unable to recognize were Hedo Turkoglu, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Eric Snow, Antoine Wright and Rashad McCants. Maybe he can get a pass for not being able to name Wright or McCants, but the first three names actually had notable careers in the NBA.
One of the funnier moments of the segment was the fact that Flagg did know who Juwan Howard and Michael Finley were, but seemed to only know of them as coaches. Howard has been an assistant coach in the NBA with the Miami Heat and now the Brooklyn Nets, and was also the head coach at Michigan. Finley has been working in the Mavericks front office and currently holds the title of assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel.
The pack of cards that Flagg was given to open and identify was significant in the fact that Flagg was born in 2006 and the pack of cards was from 2006. In addition to Howard and Finley, Flagg was also able to recognize Antoine Walker and Rasual Butler.
After a strong summer league in Las Vegas, Mavericks will get to see Flagg back in action as the team opens preseason on Monday, Oct. 6 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
