ESPN still is not doing themselves any favors.
During Wednesday’s coverage of the 2025 NBA Draft, ESPN made a humiliating mistake. With roughly an hour to go before the start of the draft, ESPN was covering the arrival of some of the top prospects to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The network ran a Cooper Flagg graphic while panning up to one of the draft prospects who was posing on the red carpet. The only problem? It was not Flagg (nor anyone even close to him).
Instead, it was fellow 2025 prospect Ace Bailey who was shown on camera. Take a look at the brutal video.
That is most certainly not Cooper Flagg. pic.twitter.com/zGUP0WChko
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 25, 2025
Bailey does not even have the slightest resemblance to Flagg (in large part because they are of two different ethnicities). But that much was apparently lost on ESPN.
The mistake was further compounded by the anchor who was on duty for ESPN at the time. After realizing the error, the anchor noticed that the broadcast had cut to a different prospect and said, “There’s Cooper Flagg!” Unfortunately, the second prospect wasn’t Flagg either (instead it was Dylan Harper).
The 18-year-old Flagg, who is one of the most hyped basketball prospects of the 21st century, did indeed go with the No. 1 overall pick to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday. But this is far from the first time in recent months that ESPN has made a brutal mistake while covering a major sporting event.
