Who won NBA Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg?

Cooper Flagg wins NBA Rookie of the Year, beating Kon Knueppel

Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg was named 2025-26 NBA Rookie of the Year, closing out a season-long race that had multiple close calls and much debate.

Flagg edged out Duke teammate Kon Knueppel, with the voting close enough that the announcement capped a storyline that had been treated as a tight, end-to-end competition among the league’s top first-year players. In addition to Knueppel, another Duke-related name—VJ Edgecombe—appeared among the broader set of finalists in coverage, underscoring how unusual it was for a single college program to dominate the conversation.

The key on-court argument for Flagg was his production across a rookie calendar: he finished the regular season leading all qualified rookies with 21.0 points per game, while also contributing 6.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. Those numbers helped turn the award race from a question of “potential” into one anchored by sustained impact.

For Dallas, the honor adds to the momentum of a season where the franchise treated its young core as a runway for immediate relevancy. For Duke, the win also means a rare split—teammates, same program, competing for the league’s top rookie honor in a vote that ultimately went Dallas’ way.

Why it matters: the award is both an individual milestone and a marker of which new player the league will view as a cornerstone going forward. Flagg’s statistically clear profile—combined with the unusually tight voting environment—makes this year’s Rookie of the Year result one of the clearest “who separated themselves” outcomes in recent memory.