Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg has been named the 2025-26 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, earning the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy.

Cooper Flagg joined Michael Jordan as the only rookies to lead their team in total points, rebounds, assists and steals since steals were first recorded in 1973-74.

Flagg is the second-youngest Kia NBA Rookie of the Year winner, behind only LeBron James.

A global media panel of 100 voters selected the 2025-26 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year.

The 26-point gap between the top two finishers is the second smallest since the current voting format began in 2002-03, behind only a 15-point gap in 2021-22.

Player, Team	1st Place Votes (5 pts)	2nd Place Votes (3 pts)	3rd Place Votes (1 pt)	Total Points
Cooper Flagg, Dallas	56	44	0	412
Kon Knueppel, Charlotte	44	55	1	386
VJ Edgecombe, Philadelphia	0	1	93	96
Dylan Harper, San Antonio	0	0	5	5
Cedric Coward, Memphis	0	0	1	1

Source: NBA PR

dunn_for | Celtics

21 | an hour ago

Cooper “never tell me the odds” Flagg!

Voting breakdown seems pretty genuine to me. It was a tight call. Good on both Coop and Kon for having genuinely historic and fun to watch rookie seasons. Gave us one heck of a race.

HornetsAreBad | Hornets

19 | an hour ago

Who gave VJ a second place vote over Kon?

whydoihavetwodo

4 | an hour ago

Take away that person’s vote

Timely_Law_1921

20 | an hour ago

Who voted VJ 2nd place😭

Bennnnetttt | Lakers

1 | 23 minutes ago

Hey man, Coop deserves it, and Kon had a good run, but tbh Id take VJ over both of them.

N7Brendan | Vancouver Grizzlies

1 | 21 minutes ago

Send this man back in time he’s taking Darko Milicic over Lebron that’s how good his eye for talent is everyone

Timely_Law_1921

1 | 19 minutes ago

You’re not taking VJ over cooper bro😭😭😭😭

Responsible-Owl-2873

9 | an hour ago

Much deserved, dude balled out as a first option

jacobedawson

9 | an hour ago

He deserved, Kon and VJ were good but Flagg was great in the second half of the season

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

4 | an hour ago

Damn I didn’t know it was rookie of the second half of the season

DisMeDog

10 | an hour ago

All awards are. How you finish has always been significantly more important in narrative based awards than how you start.

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

-8 | an hour ago

Ok but it shouldn’t be that way though. Thats the point

___forMVP | Warriors

1 | 33 minutes ago

Why not?

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

1 | 30 minutes ago

Because it’s an award for the whole regular season? Thats why it says rookie of the YEAR. Why should how you finish matter more than how you start?

If you average 30/10/10 the second half of the season but 10/1/1 in the first half you impacted your team in the exact same way if you averaged 30/10/10 in the first half and 10/1/1 in the second half

dylanah | Mavericks

7 | an hour ago

Flagg was basically the shoo-in favorite before the all-star break. Kon actually closed it up after the ASB when the Hornets were on an absolute tear and Flagg missed a good bit of time. If there were a Rookie of the First Half of the Season Flagg would’ve won that easily.

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

-16 | an hour ago

Kon averaged 19/6/4 on 65% ts while Flagg averaged 20/7/4 on 56% ts

Kon cleared him lol. Ur just a biased mavericks fan who doesn’t care about efficiency for some reason?

ActOfZod

3 | 42 minutes ago

There’s more to it than points, rebounds and assists. What about the defensive end? That whole other half of the ball.

If you want to talk efficiency what about Flagg’s playmaking impact and his insanely low turnover rate for his usage rate?

What about his role as a first option getting the best defender every night whereas 94% of Kon’s 3s were assisted?

No doubt Kon is a great player but his scoring efficiency is massively buoyed by being the 3rd option next to a great playmaker in Lamelo. In games without Lamelo, or games without Lamelo and Miller his scoring efficiency massively plummets.

Context is important if you’re just going to pull out shooting efficiency as your one argument. It’s literally the only area Kon beats Flagg and it’s highly influenced by his teammates.

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

-4 | 36 minutes ago

Because efficiency is extremely important and kon completely wipes him on that end?

Also when his starting pg lamelo was off the floor, Kon averaged 23/7/4 on 60% ts. Still elite

ActOfZod

1 | 25 minutes ago

You’re rounding is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It was actually ²²⁄₆.⁵⁄₄.

I didnt deny that Kon’s SCORING efficiency was better. That’ll obviously happen when he has good teammates, he’s getting a lot of shots set up for him, has good spacing, and isn’t the entire focus of the opposite team’s defense.

I see you’ve ignored my points about playmaking efficiency/taking care of the ball (another key part of efficiency beyond just scoring), and defense - the whole other half of the game. Both of which Cooper excels at. Those are much more important than the edge in scoring efficiency on lower volumes

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

1 | 19 minutes ago

I barely rounded lmfao it actually is ²³⁄₆.⁶⁄₄.4

I rounded his assists down as much as I rounded his rebounds up

Also Flagg only has .7 higher otov than kon like lowkey not than crazy. Ur right though Flagg is elite in that respect especially for a rookie

ArrowInBlack

2 | an hour ago

Well there wasn’t a clear best player in the first half

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

-4 | an hour ago

Kon averaged 19/5/4 on 65% ts in the first half of his season while Flagg averaged 19/5/4 on 55% ts for the first half of his season

Flagg only averaged .5 more steals too 🦑 pretty clear who was better

Green-Revenue-9631

3 | an hour ago

Now put the entire season together… coop clears.

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

-6 | an hour ago

He wasn’t though. Flagg was way less efficient and lacked the off ball impact kon had.

ez_g | Slovenia

5 | an hour ago

And coop was guarded by the teams best player, was the entire gameplan for the opposing defense and was a WAY better defender.

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

-4 | an hour ago

Maybe Flagg should’ve had an off ball game then?

Also Flagg wasn’t a much better defender.

THUNDER-GUN04 | Nuggets

4 | 41 minutes ago

Congrats, you have actually changed my opnion. I now believe Flagg was the correct choice.

ez_g | Slovenia

2 | an hour ago

Should’ve had an offball game? Lol with what point guard? And it’s laughable you say he isn’t a much better defender lmao

Not to mention he was very much a good player off ball, when given the chance

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

-4 | an hour ago

Buddy shot <30% from 3 😂😂😂 prime Chris Paul couldn’t save his floor spacing this season

OnlyParticular3688

2 | an hour ago

who cares about the efficiency to judge roy before? in nba history ever?
and if you keep saying about off ball impact, then what about on-ball gravity?

coop rates high on-ball gravity among players last season

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

-2 | 43 minutes ago

Why shouldn’t rookie of the year consider efficiency? Like what 😭😭😭? The award is for whatever rookie performed best that season and efficiency is a very important part of a performance. Like can u please at least justify why efficiency shouldn’t matter?

Also Flagg was one of the least efficient creators in the league last season lol so don’t talk about his on ball performance either

OnlyParticular3688

1 | 40 minutes ago

yeah whatever keep crying with cursed nets lol
cannot find any meaning to debate

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

1 | 32 minutes ago

Because ur not debating? Lil man ur just crying because u can’t justify ur opinions

Also ur pfp is literally the dude in question so ur obviously not being objective here lol

🦑

Green-Revenue-9631

2 | 39 minutes ago

Kon will never be a better player than Cooper Flagg, sorry man. He’s good. But there’s levels

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

1 | 29 minutes ago

Rookie of the year not rookie with the most potential 😂 sorry lil man I don’t make the rules

Green-Revenue-9631

1 | 27 minutes ago

Cooper was the better rookie. Sorry bro, but you’ll get over it eventually

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

1 | 25 minutes ago

I have no horse in this race lil dude

U the one crying because kon’s better

UBKUBK

-1 | an hour ago

Also 81 games played to 70.

arclop | Cavaliers

1 | an hour ago

Yup

KindlyPerspective389 | Knicks

6 | an hour ago

the best player won 🤷‍♂️

Caffeinemonster000 | Mavericks

4 | an hour ago

Who voted for Cedric Coward

Overall-Palpitation6 | Grizzlies

1 | an hour ago

He got 1 3rd place vote.

RedtheGamer100 | Hornets

1 | an hour ago

can’t even jokingly say bill Simmons cuz he was a kon truther

ChessHistory

1 | 32 minutes ago

Personally I would have voted Kon but clearly a case that can go either way. I just think it’s significantly more impressive/valuable what Kon did for the Hornets than what Cooper did for a shut-down Mavs.

RedtheGamer100 | Hornets

2 | an hour ago

Obv wanted Kon to win but Flagg was good too. Precedent for flashy stats over team success was set with Melo v Bron

sharkysharky- | NBA

2 | an hour ago

Does Kon win this if the hornets make it out of the Play-in?

IndividualHeat

2 | an hour ago

The votes were due before they played the second playin game but I imagine that if he had a great performance in that first game, he probably sways enough voters to win it because realistically a lot of the voters just aren’t watching all that many regular season Hornets and Mavericks games.

a1oner_bvcksn6 | Bucks

0 | an hour ago

Nah, team success never had much weight in ROTY voting process

tactis1234 | Mavericks

1 | an hour ago

Still can’t believe he is on the Mavs! Well deserved!

dylanah | Mavericks

3 | an hour ago

This is great for his trade value.

Jec1027 | Warriors

1 | an hour ago

First ROTY decided by the playin

samamatara

1 | 20 minutes ago

grab your popcorn everyone. salt vs smug coming up

Constant_Hearing1048

-1 | an hour ago

Of course, who else could it be?

[deleted]

1 | an hour ago

[deleted]

Constant_Hearing1048

-1 | an hour ago

Never heard of him

JaySayMayday | Spurs

-12 | an hour ago

Dylan Harper. Of course Flagg is gonna get crazy stats on a team where there’s no other players

Proof_Ad_2632 | Mavericks

5 | an hour ago

Would you think Chet as an impactful and starting Center on 57 win team should’ve won over Wemby on a 22 win team? Not trolling really wondering

GrouchyPeach3656 | Mavericks

1 | an hour ago

Ya don’t say

DwnvotesMeansImRight | Thunder

-21 | an hour ago

Kon, the obvious pick

He’s more valuable in his position than Cooper is in his..

Scoring forward dudes like Cooper get you where Orlando Magic are with Banchero, or Raptors with Barnes/Siakam, or Cade

Kon gets you where the 2016 Warriors were

iv214 | Mavericks

10 | an hour ago

First rookie since Michael Jordan to lead their team in every stats. But sure dude. Forwards like Cooper Flagg are a dime a dozen. Who needs a superstar player to build around when you can have an amazing 3rd option. Who is curry in the case of Kon and the 2016 warriors? LaMelo?

nickthearchaeologist | Mavericks

5 | an hour ago

We… we understand that Coop isn’t a score-first forward… right? His calling card is defense and damn did that show the second half of the season

chief1555 | Knicks

6 | an hour ago

Siakam helped the Raptors win a title so that seems like a weird example to choose to make your point

BurnieTheBrony | Grizzlies

1 | 34 minutes ago

Username not accurate

Mike-XL

-3 | an hour ago

Kon faded down the stretch.

Jec1027 | Warriors

2 | an hour ago

And coop had a bad stretch as well nobody brings that up lmao

Awanderingleaf

-5 | an hour ago

Meh, Kon should have won but Flaggs name was penciled in from day one. Kon had a fantastic season for any player let alone a rookie.

dizzyd_sb | Celtics

4 | an hour ago

I think Kon left a really bad taste in voters mouths after a bad last month of the season and going ghost in the play-in games

i_forgot_my_code | Mavericks

2 | an hour ago

And Flagg didn’t? Lol, Kon did nothing better than Coop other than shooting 3s

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

4 | an hour ago

Curry did nothing better than LeBron in 2017 but shoot 3s

Was he not more valuable though ?

i_forgot_my_code | Mavericks

-1 | an hour ago

This isn’t the MVP race, you’re comparing Apples to Oranges, are you saying Kon deserves Generational Recognition as much as 2017 Curry?

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

3 | an hour ago

He probably had the best shooting season for a rookie ever so yeah

Green-Revenue-9631

3 | an hour ago

This isn’t a 3 point shooting award. It’s rookie of the year. Coop clears

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

0 | an hour ago

Then why did kon have a greater impact on his team? When has inefficient shotchucking ever led to success? When hasn’t elite shotmaking led to success?

Green-Revenue-9631

1 | an hour ago

Kon has a better supporting cast. That is all. Put Kon on the mavericks and the mavericks win about 15 games total. Flagg on the Hornets, Flagg wins ROTY by a larger margin

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

1 | 41 minutes ago

Then why was kon more efficient when lamelo was off the floor then Flagg was the whole season?

i_forgot_my_code | Mavericks

0 | an hour ago

I’m not saying that wasn’t great, because it was, but GENERATIONAL? Idk about that. He’s got a high ceiling, he’s in the conversation with Steph Curry to be the GOAT from 3. Flagg is in the conversation currently with multiple league legends for his all around game. It was a great rookie race, but for the original comment to essentially dismiss Flagg’s season in comparison to Kon’s season is ridiculous

gdk_dinkleberg | Nets

0 | an hour ago

Kon’s shooting season was beyond generational for a rookie lmfao

It’s the best ever.

i_forgot_my_code | Mavericks

2 | 39 minutes ago

I wasn’t really referencing a generational season, I was referring to more of a generational player. But it’s all good, Either way, im genuinely excited to see where both of their careers go

sharkysharky- | NBA

3 | an hour ago

Kon had a better supporting cast. Coop had 2 injured and old stars riding his bench

Abkhaziaisnotmyhome

1 | an hour ago

Wdym. Kon was definitely the favorite during the season

[NBA PR] Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg has been named the 2025-26 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, earning the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy.