No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg made his NBA Summer League debut on Thursday when the Dallas Mavericks took on Bronny James and the Los Angeles Lakers. It ended up being one of the most-watched Summer League games in ESPN history.
Sports Ratings Tracker reported that only three Summer League games “on the ESPN networks” have ever drawn a bigger audience.
“Thursday’s Lakers-Mavericks NBA Summer League game, which marked the NBA debut of #1 pick Cooper Flagg, averaged 955,000 viewers on ESPN — marking the fourth-largest Summer League audience ever on the ESPN networks,” the update said. “The Mavericks’ win, which peaked with 1.12 million viewers, trails only Hornets-Spurs in 2023 (Victor Wembanyama’s debut: 1.39M), Pelicans-Knicks in 2019 (Zion Williamson’s debut: 1.61M) and Celtics-Lakers in 2017 (1.1M).”
Like Flagg this year, Williamson and Wembanyama were highly-touted No. 1 overall picks in 2019 and 2023, respectively. The viewership of the 2017 game between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers was likely bolstered by not just the shared history of both franchises but also that they had picked second and third overall in that year’s draft, with the Lakers selecting Lonzo Ball No. 2 and the Celtics taking Jayson Tatum one pick later.
While he had his good moments, Flagg generally struggled with his shot in the game, shooting 5-for-21 from the field, scoring 10 points. He also recorded six rebounds, four assists, three steals and one blocked shot.
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