The Dallas Mavericks are four games into the season, and Cooper Flagg, 19 and in his second year in the league, is already being held up against LeBron James at the same age. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is the latest to weigh in. On the newest episode of his podcast, “Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective,” he compared the two teenagers as defenders and shooters.

Windhorst’s comments came after Flagg’s game Monday in Miami. Fans are divided over whether the comparison holds up or needed to be made at all.

Brian Windhorst Measures Cooper Flagg Against a Teenage LeBron James

Windhorst laid out his case in three sentences: “Cooper Flagg’s a better defender than LeBron at 19. Cooper Flagg’s got a better fundamental jump shot at 19. Cooper Flagg is more positionally versatile defensively at age 19.”

Flagg logged 40 minutes in a 113-109 victory against the Miami Heat and finished with 29 points on 12-of-23 from the field to go with 11 assists, six rebounds, five steals and three blocks.

Per the NBA, no player still in his teens at any point in the league’s history had combined five or more steals, five or more rebounds, 10 or more assists and 25 or more points in one game until Flagg did it.

Not everyone welcomed the comparison. “This is just so unnecessary,” one fan wrote.

Another fan made a longer case for James at 19:

“This needs to stop. I know what they’re trying to imply. I will tell you right now, LeBron was 99% of the time the best player on whatever court he stepped on at the age of 19. Cooper is special, deserves recognition…but I’m picking 19 year old LeBron over 19 year old Cooper.”

Others took Windhorst’s side. “NGL, this is true,” one fan wrote.

Another fan pushed it further: “They was telling me Flagg’s ceiling is ‘Tatum’ whole time it’s LeBron.”

Another X user added to the debate: “Better defender? Yes. More versatile? Arguably. Better fundamental jump shot? Absolutely not.”

But a fan turned the focus to Windhorst himself: “Windhorst been saying [expletive] about Bron ever since Bron called him a weirdo lol.”

That theory points back to a long history between the two. Windhorst has covered James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, for the length of both men’s careers.

They went to the same high school in Akron, St. Vincent-St. Mary, where Windhorst started out in journalism. He moved to the Cleveland Cavaliers beat in 2003, the year the Cavaliers drafted James.

When James left for the Heat in 2010, ESPN hired Windhorst to cover Miami that same year. He has stayed with the network since.

Windhorst addressed their relationship on the “SI Media Podcast” in 2022: “LeBron doesn’t have personal relationships like that with reporters. He hasn’t for a long time.”

James brought up Windhorst by name on “The Pat McAfee Show” on March 26, 2025, and said, “These guys are just weird.”

Windhorst has made the comparison before. In January, as a rookie, Flagg had 49 points on 20-of-29 shooting and 10 rebounds in a 123-121 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, breaking the NBA record for points by a teenager, previously 45, set by Cliff Robinson in 1980. Afterward, Windhorst said “Cooper’s jump shot is better than LeBron’s was” at the same age.

Flagg and the Mavericks are 2-2 and eighth in the Western Conference. They host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night at American Airlines Center, and the Houston Rockets visit Friday. The Mavericks visit James’ Philadelphia 76ers on December 17.