DALLAS - For Cooper Flagg? This is a new experience; the Dallas Mavs teenager has never been through it before.
For Mark Cuban? It's "been there/done that'' ... and "let's do it again.''
The NBA and its officials have long operated using a tenet with rookies - even budding superstars - that they have to "earn'' calls. It happened to Dirk Nowitzki. It happened to Luka Doncic. And now it's happening to Flagg, the 19-year-old sensation from Duke who dropped 83 points over his last two games ...
Without getting a call to go his way.
“I saw a foul,” coach Jason Kidd said after a Saturday loss at Houston in which Flagg drove to the hole late in the game at a critical point but didn't get the call. “Sean [Wright], Simone [Jelks], and Jason [Goldenberg] were awful tonight. The referees were unacceptable. It’s a foul, and he needs to be at the free-throw line.
Now, does he make both? That’s up to the player, but the referees did not do their job.
"They were terrible.”
One number does jump out here in support of Kidd's claim: Flagg is averaging just 4.5 free-throw attempts per game - an absurdly low number for a player who plays with the ball in his hands and who so often occupies the paint.
And now Cuban, the team’s former majority owner, is representing the franchise as he wants a piece of the corrective action.
“When every touch was a foul last month, (Flagg) didn’t get any calls,” Cuban wrote on social media. “Then the crew chiefs made the decision there should be more physicality, changing how they call the games mid-season, like they did a couple years ago.
"So now not only does Coop still not get any calls, he gets hammered more often.”
Cuban's call-to-action solution: “We need help from Mavs Nation,'' he tweeted. "When you see an obvious no-call on a drive, post it here, there and everywhere and tag @OfficialNBARefs.”
Cuban has a long history of demanding better officiating ... but there are no guarantees of this campaign working. In fact, it could backfire, with spiteful refs punishing Flagg and the Mavs for calling them out.
Through it all, we have faith that Flagg won't be backing down and won't be changing his assertive style of play.
And we bet he'll start getting calls, just like Dirk and Luka eventually did ... once he's no longer a rookie.