Mark Cuban Says He Sees Cooper Flagg Having Same NBA Development Path as Kobe Bryant

Former Dallas Mavericks governor Mark Cuban has great faith in Mavs rookie Cooper Flagg's future, so much so that he offered a comparison to late Los Angeles Lakers legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant regarding his potential development path while taking in Dallas' 87-85 summer league win over L.A. Thursday, per Rachel Nichols of Fox Sports.

Cuban, who still owns a minority stake in the Mavs, saw Bryant up and close many times during his time owning Dallas. Bryant ended up as an 18-time All-Star, 15-time All-NBA player, five-time NBA champion and two-time scoring champion, among other accolades over 20 NBA seasons.

Bryant entered the NBA out of high school in 1996 as the No. 13 overall draft pick. He came off the bench over his first two seasons, but he became a full-time starter in year three. By year four (1999-00), Kobe was co-starring on the Lakers with Shaquille O'Neal and leading Los Angeles to the NBA title.

Flagg has long been projected as the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft class. He's been lauded as a potential superstar for quite some time, and his excellent lone college season at Duke, where he won consensus national player of the year honors, did nothing to dissuade that notion.

It wouldn't be a surprise down the road to see Flagg as a lock first ballot Hall of Famer and a legend of the game. He should be a major focal point of the Mavs early and often this year as well, especially with Kyrie Irving recovering from a torn ACL too.

For now, though, he's obviously just one game into his summer league career as he traverses his rookie season. A date with the San Antonio Spurs is up next on Saturday.