EThe moment Jack Johnson's big black fists slammed into the white fighter's face, he broke not just the bones of his opponents, but the spirit of White America. Blow after blow after blow. From this shame a myth was born. One after another, like scarecrows, the white fighters lined up. One by one, they collapse. As cultural critic Gerald Earley has argued, Johnson's fights became less about sports and more about the drama of race in America, with each knockout symbolizing a direct challenge to white supremacy. Over the next 100 years, in various sports, whites tried to find the next champion who would return them to glory. This myth-making even inspired Howard Sackler's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Great White Hope.
In basketball, figures such as Jerry West and “Pistol” Pete Maravich represented English superiority before the complete desegregation of the NBA revealed the overwhelming superiority of African American players. By the time Larry Bird was revived in the 1980s, the Great White Hope narrative had simply been reworked for a new generation. Bird was a tough redneck from Indiana. Bird was a godsend for the white working class of Boston. Bird was Magic's equal. Bird was the Great White Hope disguised as a Great White Hope denier.
From a 1985 Sports Illustrated profile:
I don't want to be considered the Great White Hope. I just want to be a great basketball player, period.
But that was 40 years ago. Since then, all white MVP level players have been European (Dirk Nowitzki, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic). The NBA hasn't had a white American All-Star since Kevin Love in 2018: a good player, but not a superstar.
If there were ever a made-for-TV story about the rise of the next Great White Hope, Sackler couldn't imagine a better environment than the Dallas Mavericks. They are the only team that can say their three best players of all time are white (Steve Nash, Nowitzki, Doncic). After Doncic was traded to the Lakers still fresh and rawDallas is desperate. The city languished, healing an open wound. So when luck is on the level of conspiracy has fallen on Harrison's lap, Cooper Flagg became part of a mythological cycle that arose a millennium before him.
Not since LeBron James in 2003 has a rookie emerged with such huge expectations and the hopes of a city desperately in need of deliverance. An 18-year-old boy in Dallas Flagg goes to a shit show. Doncic's deal was one of the worst ever. When he was traded, fans protested his loss outside the arena for weeks, even carry a coffin to the steps of the American Airlines Center. Dead fandom in a dead box. Harrison should thank dumb luck or the simulacrum script that got him Flagg, who supposedly saved his job.
None of this is Flagg's fault. He's just a good guy from Maine who wants to play basketball. But the reality is that the Mavericks are a huge question mark. Harrison is still the general manager, so anything is possible in terms of roster building. Kyrie Irving re-signed with Dallas this summer but is out for the year with a torn ACL. Anthony Davis is a former superstar who may still have something special left in him at 32 years old, but he remains the most injury-prone big man in the NBA. The rest of the lineup has lean bigs and defensive forwards. Shot creation will primarily fall to Flagg, who will be the legitimate favorite to win Rookie of the Year. He also has a chance, without Irving, to lead the Mavs in scoring and assists. Flagg is best known for his versatile two-way game, especially his voracious defense. But in the first year he will be asked to solve a crime.
Looking at his full filming profile, you can see the shortcomings and promise. From Maine United to Montverde to Duke, the data shows what images he hunts and what he makes of them. Lay-ups (1.22 points per shot) and free throws (a ridiculous 1.62) are his bread and butter. Unprotected catch-and-shoot threes are worth 1.08 points per shot. Then there are cracks: pull-ups on twos at 0.64, floaters at 0.87, sinking like stones. This is where the defense will force him in his first year. As a rookie, he will have to live in the ring and on the line. Bird style polished daggers will come later.
Unlike the opponents Johnson has put on the court, Flagg is a real player. He breaks the old stereotype of the “cunning but unathletic” white player. His vertical leap is fierce and fast, and his defense is incredibly reactive. He can shoot, handle the ball, defend and make plays. His favorite player? Bird. No bullshit. He also has Bird's raunchy swagger, which he'll need every ounce of when playing for Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson. Her titles include: gambling lobbyist. Trump's main donor. Architect of legalized vice. Casino builder. Promoter of Israeli genocide in Gaza. She is all of this, and she is also the main architect of legalized gambling in Texas so that she can plunge Dallas into gambling degeneration. Rookies don't get to decide where they'll be drafted. Flagg has to play for an owner whose politics are toxic. That's part of the pressure he'll face just trying to get to the rim.
Dallas has fans accustomed to white superstars. Flagg doesn't have to replace Doncic, but he should follow in his footsteps. Dirk was a silent killer, gentle and approachable. Doncic was the devilish little devil, sarcastic and full of braggadocio from South Dallas. Both were loved. Flagg's transmission is interrupted before it even begins. He will have to dominate on the court and establish his presence off it.
So far, he's responded coolly: “I wouldn't look at anything as pressure… I'm not worried about living up to certain players' expectations… I'll just be myself and try to get better every single day that I can.”
But Flagg doesn't just step into racial baggage—he steps into the national zeitgeist. After the NBA's first two decades were dominated by white Americans, desegregation made it clear that black players were superior in every part of the game. Ironically, Nowitzki became the archetype that helped Europe catch up with America. Dirk became the first European-born MVP, but Jokic earned three awards of his own. Former Mav Nash won back-to-back MVP titles in Phoenix. Meanwhile, the US produces mostly white role players like JJ Redick: gunslingers, fixers, table servers. It's hard to continue to argue that America is the best basketball nation even though it's been eight seasons since it became the MVP.
Flagg has a chance to do better. He looks like a remarkable talent, a player who can change not only how the game is played, but also how it is taught. After Dirk, every major player shoots threes. Not since Brent “Bones” Barry have we seen a white guy from the suburbs. soak like this. Defensively, Flagg is already built differently. His timing and coordination are uncanny: those dead-hand blocks where he meets the ball in the air without flinching. His rim protection is already reminiscent of defending a perennial All-Defense candidate before he can legally buy a beer.
Likewise, Kaitlyn Clark's arrival in the WNBA was a maelstrom of ratings boom and culture war for a white phenomenon in a black-dominated league. Flagg does something similar, although the men's script is older and sewn directly into NBA mythology.
It's a stupid fandom to root against someone because of their race. But it happens in all races and sports. Dallas is unique in its history of generations of white stars. Flagg will have to drown out the noise and focus on the ball. He did this on every level. The city is hurt, still reeling from Doncic's departure, and healing needs to happen. Entertainment for the masses will help, but there is no mythical Jack Johnson to defeat in Dallas. There is no racial redemption arc waiting to be fulfilled. There is only hostility and harsh truth.
Flagg doesn't exist to atone for whiteness or avenge the ghosts of Jack Johnson. He exists in a league where those myths persist but no longer dictate the game. His story is about opportunity. He is a teenager stepping into a story larger than himself. At worst, Flagg is an enjoyable diversion. At best, he could write the next chapter in the complex history of basketball expectations.
