The state of Maine, often associated with the impressive nature and the lobster rolls, is about to be in charge and the center in the NBA draft this year, since Cooper Flagg is expected to make history as the first selection number 1 of the pine tree state.
“It is a really great feeling, really great for me to pass and have all Maine’s support behind me,” Flagg told NBC News at the AT&T Flaggship experience event in New York City before the draft, which begins on Wednesday night.
“In fact, I had to go home a little this summer so far, and just seeing all the support and seeing everyone was really good for me, and it is a great sensation to know that I have the whole state behind me, and it is a kind of story that I am able to do.”
Flagg is Newport (Pop. 3,133), a 30 -minute city to the west of Bangor, known not for its basketball players but for its natural beauty. And regardless of where he has recruited, Flagg will become the third person born in Maine to play in the NBA, and the first to be recruited in 41 years. Illinois and North Carolina currently lead the way with seven selections No. 1 each since the draft began in 1947.
“More than just my family, my people of people at home in Maine and my followers who have taken me through everything, and my followers are really important to me and for whom I am today,” Flagg said.
The Dallas Mavericks have the first selection in the draft, but it does not matter where it ends, Flagg will continue to be a main one for its nucleus, ordering its lobster rolls cooled with mayons (unlike the competitive version of Connecticut of Warm with Butter).
Maine’s basketball runs through the Flagg family. Flagg’s mother, Kelly Bowman Flagg, played at regional nokomis High School, the same school with Cooper and her twin brother, Ace, won a state championship, and she captained the team at the University of Maine. Cooper’s father, Ralph, played at Eastern Maine Community College. Ace currently plays for the University of Maine.
Cooper’s basketball career began with individual games against Ace and his older brother Hunter at the entrance of the family in Newport. Those games sometimes ended in fighting fights.
Cooper, now 18 and 6 feet 9 inches, says those games and their education are at the root of its competitive impulse.
“They taught us from an early age, and just playing 100% you know, as hard as you can every time, playing and giving everything to the game. So I think it’s a kind of servant. And then you get it, since you play more on the entrance path, and you never want to lose with your brothers.”
According to Ace, Cooper was like any other shy child who grew in Maine. “But when you have a very close community, as we did in Maine, it’s when you can really see it open,” he said. “We are surrounded by our friends and family, and he really leaves his shell.”
Remember when he and Cooper played in a game in the Springfield Hall of Fame, Massachusetts, a year after they moved to Florida to finish high school. His friends, family and members of the community led three to four hours from Maine, filling the upper section of the stands. “It was the loudest section of the building. So it was incredible to see only support when we had not even seen most of them for a year at that time, and still showed full support.”
Flagg has maintained its connection with Maine throughout his career, especially outside the court. Last August, he signed with New Balance due to the presence of the company in the state, including a 25 -mile manufacturing plant from its hometown.
“The connection with New Balance as a family business and a company with roots of Maine means a lot to me,” Flagg said at that time. “That makes this really different and special. My mother used to go on sale of tents for shopping to school there when we were children. That really aligns the brand with my roots. It is a perfect adjustment.”
Flaggship’s experience of AT&T leaned in Flagg’s ties with Maine in an attempt to connect fans with his entire career, starting in his native state. They presented their Nokomis HS t -shirts and Aau Maine United’s team, showed photographs and newspaper clips of their time in Maine and qualified activation such as “Maine Event “, referring to the” town “of support to his mother, Kelly, often refers.
But it is not just Maine who is behind Cooper: the Fandom has spread throughout New England.
The former Celtic player Brian Scalabrine, now commentator of the Boston Celtics, said that fans of the entire region constantly ask about Flagg.
“The entire state of Maine is behind him. New England is behind him,” Scalabrine told NBC News. “They love the fact that this child is out of nowhere.”
Scalabrine points out that Flagg’s rise in the game gives hope to young players from all over the country in remote places. “Every child, white, black, a child in Europe, wherever, is looking like this child from the middle of nowhere, and is becoming the number 1 team in the draft,” he said. “He is giving other people the opportunity to think that you can come from anywhere and do it. You can come from Maine’s middle and become the number 1 team in the draft.”
The Native of Maine and the Boston Celtics fan, James Little, 37, who was at the AT&T event, said: “He hopes that the whole state will move on his shoulders. This is one of the most important things that has happened for our state in a long time.”
The Portland resident, Marisa Veroneau, 43, also at the FlagG event on Monday, said that even Basketball fans are excited about Flagg. “There is enough buzz in the city, the main ones are excited to see one of our children in the city at the top of the draft. I hope the rebel shirts are soon.”
