DALLAS (USA) - A supremely talented and hard-working Cooper Flagg has shone at every stop on his journey in basketball.
There are highlight reels to prove it, from his childhood and high school days all the way through his one year at Duke University.
Yet what some may not know is there is video footage of Flagg taking on some of the best players in the world at the USA training camp in Las Vegas before the 2024 Olympics.
Flagg, selected first overall by the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night in the NBA Draft, participated in the USA Basketball training camp and played against the country's Olympic team before it travelled to France and won the gold medal.
I checked in, the first play I was guarding LeBron, that was kind of like a wake-up moment for me. It was pretty cool.
It was an eye-opener!
"I checked in, the first play I was guarding LeBron," he said. "That was kind of like a wake-up moment for me. It was pretty cool."
He may have had some butterflies.
Flagg said: "I just said, 'settle in, it's just basketball at the end of the day.'"
A member of the USA title-winning team at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup in 2022, when he was voted to the All-Star Five, Flagg will one day play for the senior team.
For now, his focus is on getting ready for his first NBA season. By taking part in the training camp last year, he was reminded of how hard he'll have to work to be successful. The men he went up against were very good.
"The basic fundamentals," he said, "they have such a different level of skill and talent that I've never really seen or played against, or been on the court with. A.D. (Anthony Davis) was on me for a little bit, blocked me, like twice.
"To scrimmage and play around and be around a ton of Hall of Fame caliber players, the best, just being around those other guys is such a big learning experience for me. I learned so much from being around them.
"Just seeing some of the level of the details and the little things and how important they are and how serious those guys take it."
Once the scrimmage was over, Flagg received the confidence boost.
"Everybody said I was able to hold my own," he said. "I think that's really what it was."
One summer later and Flagg is just months away from launching his NBA career.
And everybody's expecting him to be back under the USA Basketball jersey in the summers to come, learnnig even more.
FIBA