Duke basketball freshman phenom Cooper Flagg has taken the world of college basketball by storm with his unbelievable play this season. He’s the frontrunner for National Player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year, and almost inarguably going to be the first pick of the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft this summer.
However, Flagg took over social media in an interview with The Athletic earlier this week, as the prospect stated he might return to Duke in 2026.
“I want to come back next year,” Flagg said in the interview.
Now, this isn’t just any NBA prospect deciding to return to college after a great freshman season. Flagg is one of the most hyped up prospects of the last twenty years and, if Flagg did announce his intention to return to Duke for his sophomore season, it would be one of the bigger shocks in the history of the sport.
So, does it even make sense for Flagg to come back to Durham?
With the way NIL is in college sports nowadays, it’s fair to say that Flagg would certainly earn a seven-figure salary to come back to Duke for a sophomore season. 2026 #1 prospect AJ Dybantsa will earn $7 million to play at BYU next season, and it can be expected that Flagg would earn something in that range or maybe even more.
Although, even with a multi-million dollar contract Flagg could potentially make with Duke to come back for a second season, the salary he’d make in college with NIL wouldn’t come close to what he’d earn in the NBA as the #1 overall draft choice.
Assuming Flagg is the top pick in the draft this summer, he’d make approximately $12.6 million in base salary alone.
Additionally, Flagg would likely also have more competition to be the top pick in 2026 than he has right now in 2025 with Dybantsa coming to the college game next season.
Dybantsa, the incoming freshman at BYU, is also one of the most highly-touted prospects of the last decade or so, and similar to Flagg, is already expected to be a shoe-in for the #1 overall selection in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Seeing Flagg and Dybantsa go head-to-head in college would be must-see-television, but if Dybantsa came into college and swiped the top draft selection away from Flagg, that could be a six-figure loss for the Duke star.
Interestingly, Flagg isn’t the only superstar freshman for Duke that wanted to come back for another season.
In an interview with JJ Redick back in 2020, Zion Williamson said he “genuinely wanted to go back” to Duke and play for Mike Krzyzewski.
Obviously, Williamson was convinced otherwise and was selected with the #1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Pelicans.
So for Duke fans, it’s probably reasonable to assume that there is a 0% chance Flagg returns to Durham for another season after 2025, even if he wants to. There’s just too much to lose for Flagg by skipping out on the NBA level for another year, and it would be one of the biggest shocks in college basketball history if Flagg does decide to come back.
