Dick Vitale defends his viral stance on Cooper Flagg

ESPN’s Dick Vitale defended his viral stance on Duke freshman Cooper Flagg. He put him in an elite category of all-time players.

The projected No. 1 overall pick could end up having a Hall of Fame career but some came after Vitale for his comparison. He put Flagg in the same conversation as Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

Now before you do a double take, Vitale clarified what he meant about the four players. At their age, Flagg compares to the three basketball legends. 

“I look at the kid, I saw him in high school, and I said this, I’m sitting there on ESPN,” Vitale said on Pardon My Take. “Some people took me the wrong way. They got all over my case because they said, ‘Oh, how could he be putting his name in there with LeBron and Kobe and Magic?’ What I said was … at the same age, in my 45 years at ESPN, three guys that I’ve seen with skills and ability that he has, and that was LeBron, I did his game in high school. I’m talking about games of kids I did in high school. I didn’t do Kareem in high school, but I did LeBron in high school. 

“I did a game of Kobe Bryant in high school, and I saw Magic a number times in high school because I was recruiting him and I got rejected. I was trying to give the keys to the city of Detroit. But anyway, the bottom line is, I just think he’s so special. What he does is so rare that he doesn’t have to score to be probably the most valuable player on the court. He does a phenomenal job. He draws so much attention.”

As far as Vitale’s original take on Flagg, you can see for yourself below. He received flack for it, but as he explained, you have to remember the context.

“As Dand Shulman and Jay Bilas have said so well, Duke star Cooper Flagg is a multi dimensional superstar,” Vitale wrote on Twitter. “In my many years of basketball that I have seen personally as Cooper is right there with the 3 best I ever seen at a young age: (Lebron James, Kibe Bryant, Magic Johnson).

“Please understand I AM NOT SAYING Cooper Flagg  will be a Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson or Lebron James … Just saying at the same age he has multiple skills ala the 3 when they were his age – Putting on a dazzling show today vs (Notre Dame) setting (the Duke) record & (The ACC) record for most points in a game as a freshman. Cooper did it in multiple ways scoring 42 points. 1st 40 (point) game since JJ Redick in 2006!”