Rob Parker:

“I just think you can have this set up and put them behind American flag and all this other stuff. You gotta be able to play, I think that sounds nice, oh yeah, well if he wins and if he does this, he averaged 35 points and he does that and they win the championship, then he’d be standing behind America, really? Okay, like there’s a lot of stuff that has to go there, he could be a really good player. Christian Laettner was one of the greatest college basketball players I ever saw. Without a doubt. If you were to [name them], Kareem, you could pick like 3 people. And Christian Laettner would be in that right? Everybody who knows college basketball, Christian Laettner would be right there. You can want this and want that and all that other stuff. Wouldn’t it be great if Mike Trout had a personality in baseball? He’s good looking, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s a great player. He didn’t have it. And he was never the face of baseball. He never got that because he didn’t have all the other elements. And now you got a player from Japan who’s doing stuff we’ve never seen before.”

Kelvin Washington:

“I think America is always clamoring for the next great white hope in things. You pick the thing, whether it be Macklemore and Hip Hop. Kendrick dropped one of the greatest rap albums of all time in Good Kid Maad City. He put together a good album, had a few good single, but there’s no way he wins the Grammy for best Rap Album. But that happens, right? You go to certain other elements of society, they’re looking for that. That’s just an American thing. And if you are in denial, not you Rob, if someone’s in denial about the role in which race plays in any and everything in America, then you’re in gross denial that is embedded in the fabric of our society. Now with that being said, is there maybe an advantage to an anomaly? NBA is, I don’t know the exact number, we’re gonna say 65 is probably percent black, 65-70, at one point we know. So there’s and anomaly right? Usually the best players, the majority of them are gonna be black players just based off the numbers. So when you get an anomaly in many things, that becomes, it becomes more popular. So Cooper Flagg comes in and he’s really good, and he’s white, that only helps to the allure to the popularity.”

Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington discuss whether Cooper Flagg is as good as the hype he’s getting and whether he could become the face of the NBA. Rob and Kelvin discuss why race is a factor in Cooper Flagg’s popularity.

The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon