Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 recruit in the country and the No. 1 prospect in the 2025 NBA Draft, was forced to change numbers from the No. 32 jersey he wore in high school because the Blue Devils retired jersey No. 32 in tribute to Christian Laettner. The switch was forced but the move to No. 2 was also strategic, as he explained recently in an appearance on The Brotherhood Podcast detailing why he chose the jersey number.
“My older brother was teammates and close friends with this kid, Donovan Kurt, and he had gotten cancer and passed away just a little while ago,” said Flagg, adding that Kurt wore No. 2. “He really impacted my life in a big way. Being able to represent him really meant a lot to me.”
Kurt, who died in Nov. 2022 of brain cancer at just 19 years old, attended Nokomis Regional High in Maine and graduated in 2021. Flagg previously attended the school along with his older brother before finishing his high school career at Montverde Academy.
Flagg has a history of picking jersey numbers with purpose. He initially wore No. 32 because his mother wore it in high school, but he stuck with it after learning that her college teammate, Donovan Clingan’s mom, Stacey, had also worn it. Clingan was a star at the University of Maine who died of breast cancer in 2018.
“My mom had worn [No. 32] in high school and then her teammate in college, Donovan Clingan’s mom, had also worn it, and she had passed away,” Flagg later added. “So I think I started wearing it because [my mom] wore it originally. Then having learned that story and hearing that, it gave me more of a reason to want to wear it. Just having that reason of my mom’s teammate and wearing that number, it kind of just made me feel good about it. I just fell in love with the number.”
No. 32 worked out well for Flagg. He finished as the 247Sports No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2024 and was the star of one of the most talented high school teams ever formed at Montverde, where he won Gatorade Men’s Athlete of the Year and was a McDonald’s All-American.
No. 2 should work out just as well for Flagg at Duke as he enters the season with All-American expectations for a top-10 team, and the touching reason behind why he’ll wear it makes it all the more special.
