Description

Cooper Flagg arrived in the NBA with as much advance hype as any prospect in years, and the 2025-26 season did nothing to cool it off. A 6-foot-8 forward from Newport, Maine, he reclassified to graduate high school early, starred at Montverde Academy, then spent one season at Duke where he was a consensus All-American who won multiple national player of the year honors, including the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award, averaging 19.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals while leading the Blue Devils to a 35-4 record and a Final Four appearance. The path to Dallas was almost improbable. It's the first time they've ever jumped up in the NBA Draft Lottery since it was established in 1985, and they did it on a 1.8% chance, jumping up from 11th. The pick landed in the middle of an already tumultuous stretch for the franchise: Flagg's arrival in Dallas comes less than five months after the Mavs' shocking blockbuster trade of five-time All-NBA selection Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, a deal that outraged the fan base. Flagg became the face of the rebuild the moment he was drafted, telling reporters after his selection that "I'm feeling amazing. It's a dream come true, to be honest." The rookie season itself was not an easy one for the team around him. Dallas finished 26-56 and missed the playoffs entirely, with injuries to Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving thrusting even more responsibility onto its teenage forward. Flagg answered by putting up numbers rarely seen from a first-year player: he averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, 0.9 blocks, and 33.5 minutes per game in 70 games in 2025-26, starting every single game in his rookie campaign. He became the third rookie of the last 45 years to average at least 20 points, six rebounds, and four assists, joining Michael Jordan and Luka Doncic, and joined Jordan as the only rookies to lead their teams in points, rebounds, assists, and steals since 1973-74. Along the way he led all rookies in 25-point games, 30-point games, 35-point games, 40-point games, and had the first 50-point game for a rookie since Brandon Jennings. That production carried him to the Rookie of the Year award, though the vote was closer than the numbers suggested it should be. Flagg finished Rookie of the Year voting with 56 first-place votes, 44 second-place votes and zero third-place votes for a total of 412 points, just ahead of second-place finisher Knueppel, with the 26-point gap being the second-smallest margin since the current voting format began in the 2002-03 season. He also became, per NBA.com, the second-youngest ROY winner in history, behind LeBron James. This card is Flagg's true rookie issue, the base card from 2025-26 Topps Flagship basketball, in the Cart Load parallel. Cart Load was one of the box-exclusive chase parallels built for the Black Friday retail release of that flagship set, numbered to /25 and available only through Target Value Boxes alongside sibling parallels like Surge, Flash Drop, Cyber Circuit, and Doorbuster. It captures the first mainstream Topps basketball card of a player whose debut season was already being compared to Michael Jordan's.