Cooper Flagg, the Dallas Mavericks’ No. 1 overall pick, has been named the 2025-26 NBA Rookie of the Year after narrowly beating Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel in one of the season’s closest award races.
Flagg received 56 first-place votes to Knueppel’s 44 and finished with 412 total voting points, ahead of Knueppel’s 386. Philadelphia 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe was a distant third with 96 points, while San Antonio’s Dylan Harper and Memphis’ Cedric Coward also appeared on ballots with third-place votes.
The result capped a race that, according to the report, appeared to favor Knueppel for much of the season before some voters publicly said his Play-In Tournament performance influenced their final decision. Knueppel scored six points on 2-of-12 shooting in Charlotte’s 127-126 overtime win over Miami, then had 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting and a minus-26 rating in a 121-90 elimination loss to Orlando.
A close race between former Duke teammates
Flagg and Knueppel entered the league from Duke in the same draft class, with Knueppel going three picks after Flagg. Their rookie seasons gave voters two distinct cases: Flagg was the higher-volume all-around producer on a struggling Mavericks team, while Knueppel helped push Charlotte into the Play-In Tournament and set a rookie record with 273 made 3-pointers, a total that also led the NBA this season.
Flagg averaged 21 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game and led all rookies in scoring. The report, citing ESPN, noted that since the NBA-ABA merger, only Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Luka Doncic had previously averaged at least 20 points, six rebounds and four assists as rookies.
Knueppel averaged 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists for a Hornets team that finished 44-38 before losing to Orlando. Flagg’s Mavericks finished 26-56, but he led Dallas in scoring, rebounding and assists.
Flagg also became the second-youngest Rookie of the Year winner, behind only LeBron James, and became the youngest player to record games of 35, 40, 45 and 50 points.
The award debate included a personal layer. Flagg said he followed Knueppel’s season closely, both as a competitor and as a former teammate.
“I think also I was watching Kon just because that’s one of my brothers,” Flagg said, according to ESPN as cited in the report. “We had such a good connection, and we’re gonna be there for each other for the rest of our lives. I was watching him as a fan, as well, but there was obviously that competition at the same time.”
The final vote gave Flagg the trophy, but the margin underscored how much the late-season stage shaped a race that had remained unsettled into the postseason cutoff.
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