Duke star Cooper Flagg is undefeated against North Carolina during his freshman (and likely only) season of college basketball. The Blue Devils beat the Tar Heels by 13 in Chapel Hill on Saturday but it was not the final score that mattered.
Kelly Bowman Flagg, the mother of Cooper, went extremely viral for what the haters deemed as “classless” behavior during the second half. She has since doubled down in response to the criticism.
Before we go any further here — I have not seen the post from a first-hand source. Kelly’s Facebook profile is kept largely kept under wraps from the public eye. You have to be friends to see her full feed. However, I have seen credible outlets in the college basketball space share a screenshot of her post as truth. Take of that what you will.
This drama, which might be much ado about nothing, stems from a dunk with about 90 seconds left in the second half. The Tar Heels trailed the Blue Devils by 13 at the time. Cooper Flagg drove through the lane and skied for an emphatic jam. His parents were pumped!
Kelly Flagg’s “on your head” celebration split the college basketball world in half. Some (if not most) people considered it to be in good fun. Others thought that she should be less enthusiastic toward a needless dunk blowout win. They called her “classless” and questioned whether she should be using profane language toward the opponents.
I love everything about Kelly’s excitement. It’s great for the sport. She was excited to see her son put the nail in the coffin against his biggest rival. That’s exactly how she should react!
And yet, so many people people were so quick to tear her down that she supposedly chose to issue a statement on Facebook. Her post reads as follows:
I appreciate all of you who have supported us all season long, especially last night after my call for bail money. There were many willing to start a go fund me and several others ready to ride at dawn! I also want to apologize to anyone who was offended by my language that was caught in a celebratory moment. I do realize that it wasn’t my best look. However, if you actually know me and are a real friend of mine you weren’t shocked.
It was a very intense situation we were put into and we were taken aback by the crudeness of the UNC fans as we made our way into the arena. They continued to harass us with much worse being spewed in our direction as well as at our 18 year old son and his teammates throughout the entirety of the game. The celebration was a moment of being so proud of our kid and also a big F— you to the entire Carolina fan base for being classless a–holes. If you are UNC fan and didn’t like it…tough s—! Better luck next time! Go Duke.
— Kelly Bowman Flagg
Rivalries of this nature are always going to get intense. North Carolina hates Duke. Duke hates North Carolina. Obscenities will fly in every direction at every person when those two teams get together on the hardwood— in both arenas. This should be expected.
For Flagg to celebrate her son’s dunk in such a manner was awesome. For her to make it sound like Blue Devils fans would have been far nicer toward the Tar Heels if the roles were reversed is where she loses me. I don’t think she needed to make a statement in the first place but to do so is fine and the first half of her post was completely fair. It becomes self-indulgent when she decided to point a finger at Chapel Hill because four fingers always point right back.