Cooper Flagg returned to the Dallas Mavericks' lineup for Thursday night's game against the Orlando Magic and quickly reached a milestone in his very young NBA career.
Flagg reached 1,000 career points on his first basket of the game, laying in a shot after rebounding a miss by Khris Middleton. That made him the second-youngest player to achieve quadruple figures in his NBA career, following LeBron James.
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James was 19 years and 41 days old when he reached 1,000 points during his rookie season of 2004. Flagg scored his milestone basket at the age of 19 years and 74 days.
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Thenext youngest playersto score 1,000 points were Kobe Bryant (19 years, 127 days), Kevin Durant (19 years, 146 days) and Devin Booker (19 years, 162 days).
Flagg, the 2025 No. 1 overall draft pick has missed the Mavericks' previous eight games with a left mid-foot sprain.
The rookie star was upgraded to doubtful for Dallas' loss Tuesday to the Charlotte Hornets and was listedas questionable for the Magic gamebefore the Mavericks confirmed he would play. Head coach Jason Kidd told reporters that Flagg willplay 20 to 25 minutesversus Orlando before seeing an uptick in minutes Friday at the Boston Celtics, his favorite childhood team.
The Mavericks won only two of the eight games they played without Flagg during this most recent injury. He also missed time this seasonwith a sprained ankleand an illness.
Through 49 games this season, Flagg is averaging 20.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.2 steals per game. With 21 games remaining in the regular season, Dallas is 21-40.