YouTube Gold: Jim Boeheim On The U.S. Olympic Team And What He Thinks Of Cooper Flagg

Interesting insights from a relaxed Jim Boeheim

Jim Boeheim seems to be enjoying retirement. On this appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, he calls in from Las Vegas where he has been losing money in poker games and hanging out with the Olympic team, presumably as a sort of elder statesman/consultant.

He talks a lot here about the Olympic team in general, what he thinks the reasoning was for inviting Derrick White to take Kawhi Leonard’s spot rather than Jaylen Brown (Boeheim thinks they wanted another good defender in case Jrue Holiday gets hurt or in foul trouble or something).

He also touches on Cooper Flagg, saying that he’s one of the best young players he’s seen in a long, long time. He says Flagg can play several positions and possibly all five.

When Patrick asks him if Flagg is good enough to have been on the main team Boeheim sort of says yes but...

Basically he puts it down to experience. Flagg is clearly a brilliant talent but there is no substitute for actually being in those situations and the other guys on the team have tens of thousands of more reps than Flagg can possibly have.

His day may come, but it won’t be now.