Dallas Mavericks win the NBA draft lottery and the chance to pick Cooper Flagg No. 1 overall

CHICAGO AP The ping-pong balls have spoken Cooper Flagg might be headed to Dallas to start his NBA career And a fan base that lost Luka Doncic this season might have a new star to cheer for The Mavericks won the NBA draft lottery on Monday night giving them the No pick in next month s draft and the first chance to take Flagg the freshman who led Duke to the Final Four in his lone college season and the consensus player of the year Dallas bucked huge odds to get it done with only a chance to win the lottery coming into Monday A Mavs unit that went to the NBA Finals last season then scorned its fans by trading away Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers left Chicago with the biggest prize San Antonio with back-to-back rookies of the year in Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle will pick second Philadelphia will pick third and Charlotte will pick fourth Flagg averaged points rebounds and assists while leading Duke to the Final Four in his lone college season He shot from the field from -point range from the foul line and was The Associated Press national contestant of the year And he s had success against NBA players already Last summer when the U S Olympic club was holding its training camp in Las Vegas in advance of the Paris Games where the Americans won gold yet again Flagg was part of the select association brought in to scrimmage against the Olympians Flagg who was years old at the time more than held his own in those workouts Utah will pick fifth Washington sixth New Orleans seventh Brooklyn eighth Toronto ninth Houston th Portland th Chicago th Atlanta th and San Antonio th