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The state of Maine, often associated with breathtaking nature and lobster rolls, is about to be at the center of the NBA draft this year, because Cooper Flagg should make history as the first choice n ° 1 of the pine state.
“It’s a really cool feeling, really cool for me to live and have all the support of Maine behind me,” said Flagg at NBC News at the AT&T Flaggship Experience event in New York before the draft, which begins on Wednesday evening.
“I was able to go home this summer so far, and just see everyone support and see everyone was really good for me, and it’s just a cool feeling knowing that I have all the state behind me, and it’s a bit of the story I can make.”
Flagg is from Newport (Pop. 3 133)A city 30 minutes west of Bangor, known not for its basketball players but for its natural beauty. And no matter where he is written, Flagg will just become the third person born in Maine to play in the NBA, and the first to be drafted in 41 years. The Illinois and the North Carolina currently open the way with seven choices n ° 1 each since the start of the draft in 1947.
“More than my family, my village of people at home in Maine and my supporters who have somehow transported me through everything, and my supporters are really important to me and who I am today,” said Flagg.
The Dallas Mavericks have the first choice in the project, but it doesn’t matter where he finds himself, Flagg will remain a principal at his heart – commanding his cooled lobster rollers with Mayo (as opposed to the competing version of hot Connecticut with butter).
Maine’s basketball crosss the Flagg family. Flagg’s mother, Kelly Bowman Flagg, played the Nokomis Regional High School, the same school, Cooper and her twin brother, Ace, won a state championship, and she capitalized on the University of Maine team. Cooper’s father, Ralph, played Eastern Maine Community College. Ace is currently playing for the University of Maine.
Cooper’s basketball career began with a head-to-face games against Ace and the older brother Hunter in the family alley in Newport. These games sometimes ended with fist fights.
Cooper, now aged 18 and 6 in 9 inches, says that these games and education are at the origin of its competitive reader.
“They taught us from an early age, and play 100%, you know, as hard as you can each time, playing and giving everything to the game. So I think it’s a bit of how you are high. And then you get it by playing more in the aisle, and you never want to lose your brothers.”
According to Ace, Cooper was like all other shy children growing in Maine. “But when you have a united community, as we did in Maine, that’s when you can really see it open,” he said. “We are surrounded by our friends and our family, and he really comes out of his shell.”
Ace remembers when he and Cooper played in a match at the Springfield renowned temple, Massachusetts, a year after moving to Florida to finish the school. Their friends, family and community members led three to four hours from Maine, filling the upper section of the stands. “It was the noisiest section of the building. It was therefore incredible to see the support when we couldn’t even see most of them for a year at that time, and they have always shown full support.”
Flagg has maintained his link with Maine throughout his career, especially out of the field. Last August, he signed with New Balance due to the presence of the company in the state, including a manufacturing plant 25 miles from his hometown.
“The connection with New Balance as a family business and a company with the roots of Maine means a lot for me,” said Flagg at the time. “It makes it really different and special. My mother went to sell tents to shop at the start of the school year when we were children. It really aligns the brand with my roots. It is a perfect fit.”
The AT&T Flaggship experience relied on Flagg’s ties with Maine to try to connect fans to his entire career – from his country of origin. They presented his Nokomis HS and team jerseys and the AAU Maine United, posted photographs and newspaper clips of his time in Maine and qualified the activation of “” “Maine Event “, referring to the” village “of support for his mother, Kelly, often refers.
But it is not only Maine who is behind Cooper – the Fandom spread to all of New England.
The former Celtic player, Brian Scalabrine, now commentator of the Boston Celtics – said that fans of the whole region are constantly obvious.
“The whole state of Maine is behind him. New England is behind him,” said Scalabrine at NBC News. “They like the fact that this child is out of the middle of nowhere.”
Scalabrine notes that the Flagg’s climb in the game gives hope to young players in the country who are in distant places. “Each child, white, black, a child from Europe, everywhere, looks like this child in the middle of nowhere, and he becomes the n ° 1 choice of the draft,” he said. “He gives other people the opportunity to think that you can come from anywhere and do it. You can come from the middle of Maine and develop in choice n ° 1 of the project. ”
Native of Maine and fan of Boston Celtics, James Little, 37, who was at the AT&T event, said: “He has the hope of the whole state on his shoulders. It is one of the greatest things that have ever happened for our state for some time.”
Portland resident Marisa Veroneau, 43, also during the Flagg event on Monday, noted that even non-basketball fans are enthusiastic by Flagg. “There is a lot of buzz in town, the Mainers are delighted to see one of our children in the hometown at the top of the draft. I expect Maverick’s jerseys soon to climb these regions. ”
