Cooper Flagg vs. Yao Ming Season by Season Comparison

Side by side comparison of each NBA season of Yao Ming and Cooper Flagg, from their rookie seasons to their last year played, in chronological order with awards, stats, championships and playoff performance of their teams every year.

Who had the better rookie season? Who had best stats in their 10th season? Who won a championship first? These questions and many others, are answered here.

Cooper Flagg played 1 year in the NBA, 7 less than Yao Ming, who played 8. Cooper Flagg had his first NBA Season in 2025-26, while Yao Ming had his rookie season in 2002-03. With that starting point, here you can take a look at each of their seasons side by side and compare how their careers evolved in achievements, awards and championships won, the stats they recorded both in the Regular Season and the Playoffs and how their teams performed in the postseason.

Rookie Season
	Cooper Flagg	Yao Ming
Season	2025-26	2002-03
Team	Dallas Mavericks	Houston Rockets
Honors & Awards	-	All-Rookie First Team
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Did Not Play	Did Not Play

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Rookie Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cooper Flagg	1	32.0	10.0	1.0	9.0	10.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	3.0	3.0	4.0	13.0	.308	0.0	1.0	.000	2.0	2.0	1.000
difference:	+81	+3.0	+3.5	+1.4	+3.2	+1.8	+1.7	+0.6	+1.8	-0.9	-0.2	+0.9	+3.2	+.190		+1.0		+1.7	+2.5	+.189
Yao Ming	82	29.0	13.5	2.4	5.8	8.2	1.7	0.4	1.8	2.1	2.8	4.9	9.8	.498	0.0	0.0	-	3.7	4.5	.811
Playoffs Stats
* Neiher Cooper Flagg nor Yao Ming played in the postseason in their season 1

Additional Years
* Yao Ming played 7 seasons more than Cooper Flagg in the NBA. In that period—his seasons 2 to 8, from 2004 to 2011—Yao Ming played in 4 Playoffs. In those 7 extra years over Cooper Flagg, Yao Ming got these achievements:
Honors & Awards	2 All-NBA Second Team 3 All-NBA Third Team 7 All-Star Game