Maine’s Own Cooper Flagg Set to Make History

Cooper Flagg’s football coach, Eric Rowell, remembers watching the talented youngster dominate at a young age.

“Cooper was always playing two or three year levels up. In third grade, he was playing at a sixth-grade level and excelling,” Rowell said. “He was dunking and playing above the rim in middle school, but his competition wasn’t great. He was dominating, but it wasn’t like he had anyone who matched up to him.”

Newport, Maine, has a population of about 1,500 people, and Nokomis High School is located there. The 2025 graduating class was around 140 students. They have a terrific Southwest restaurant called Cervesas, a popular ice cream stop in Sawyer’s Dairy Bar, a bowling alley and billiards combo, one of the better ATV trailheads, and one town over has a Walmart. It’s a quick drive up Interstate 95 to Maine’s third-largest city, Bangor. There they have Husson University, a partially vacant mall headlined by a Dick’s Sporting Goods and about 25 cannabis dispensaries. Local folks went crazy with excitement when they found out a Chick-fil-A was coming to Bangor, and the lines there are typically extensive.

That’s where the 2025 NBA Draft’s No. 1 pick is coming from. Flagg is going from a small town in Maine to the Dallas Mavericks. He’s only 18 years old and is already one of the most famous athletes from Maine. Heck, he’s about to be one of the most famous people from Maine.

NBA teams have drafted six players born in Maine. The first was Thomas “Skip” Chappelle, taken in the 11th round by the St. Louis Hawks in 1962. In 1967, Mainer Joe Harrington was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 11th round. Next up was Denis Clark in the 15th round of the 1970 draft, then Peter Gavett in the 18th round of the 1973 draft, and the second highest draft pick after Harrington is Bob Warner in the eighth round of the 1976 draft.

The sixth and most recent NBA draft pick from Maine was Jeff Turner in 1984. The Bangor native was taken 17th overall by the New Jersey Nets. Turner played in parts of 10 seasons, won a gold medal with the 1984 Olympic team, and is currently a TV commentator for the Orlando Magic.

That’s the list of Maine-born players selected in the NBA draft. But even when you broaden the topic to include all Maine athletes who have been drafted or played in a pro sport, it’s still a very short list. I asked a group of fellow Mainers what athletes came to mind as the most famous to come from our beautiful state. Former women’s basketball player Cindy Blodgett was the No. 1 answer, with former baseball players Bill Swift and Mike Bordick close behind and former Nascar driver Ricky Craven was one of the top answers among older people who answered. Current NBA player Duncan Robinson was mentioned a few times, but likely not as much as you’d think, because while he was born in Maine, he went to high school in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Bordick wasn’t born in Maine but spent early parts of his childhood in the state. He attended Hampden High School in Maine alongside Craven. The high school baseball field is named after him, and Bordick went on to play at the University of Maine.

Other Mainers mentioned:

• Joan Benoit (gold medalist marathon runner)
• Seth Wescott (two-time Olympic champ snowboarder)
• Elle Logan (gold medalist rower)
• Ryan Flaherty (former MLB player and current coach)
• Joey Gamache (boxer)
• Nik Caner-Medley (basketball player)
• Tim Sylvia (MMA)
• Mark Rogers (former MLB player)
• Clyde Sukeforth (former MLB player and scout)
• Matthew Mulligan (former NFL player)
• John Winkin (baseball coach)
• Stump Merrill (former MLB manager)

Mainers Brett Brown and Josh Longstaff are currently coaches in the NBA and fellow Mainer Mackenzie Holmes is playing in the WNBA. Mainer Dick Scott is currently the manager of the New York Mets Triple-A affiliate Syracuse Mets. Four Mainers played in the NHL this past season, including Brian Dumoulin, Garnet Hathaway, Jack Williams and Oliver Wahlstrom.

Not exactly household names. You just don’t see many athletes from Maine going pro in the four major sports. When Flagg goes first overall to the Mavericks, I believe he will be the highest pick ever for a Mainer. Swift went second overall in 1984 to MLB’s Seattle Mariners, Tim Stauffer was drafted fourth overall by MLB’s San Diego Padres in 2003, Rogers was the fifth overall pick in 2004 by MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers, Blodgett went sixth overall to the WNBA’s Cleveland Rockers in 1998, Al Harris was selected ninth overall by the NFL’s Chicago Bears in 1979 and Wahlstrom was taken 11th overall by the NHL’s New York Islanders in 2018.

Mainers certainly aren’t trying to put pressure on the 18-year-old Flagg, but they’ve never seen anything like this before. He will be the second youngest first overall pick; only Lebron James was younger when drafted No. 1. It defies logic that a kid from Newport, Maine, went to Duke University to play basketball and then became a top pick in the NBA draft. We are not used to having the spotlight in sports (or in general, really; I’m sure when most people think about our state, the first thing that pops up is lobster).

“Just proving it doesn’t matter where you are from… you just got to believe in yourself,” Cooper Flagg said during a recent interview.

Both of Cooper’s parents played basketball at the collegiate level. His mom, Kelly Bowman Flagg, is being inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame later this year. She was a 1,000-point scorer at Nokomis High School and a senior captain for the University of Maine. His father, Ralph Flagg, played at Eastern Maine Community College. His twin brother Ace will play at the University of Maine this coming season after being a part of three state championships in three different schools. Cooper, Ace, and older brother Hunter were all on the 2022 Nokomis team that won their first-ever state title.

After winning the state title as a freshman, Cooper decided to attend Montverde Academy in Florida. The school has notable alumni who have played in the NBA, including Joel Embiid, Cade Cunningham, RJ Barrett and Jalen Duren. After his first year at Montverde, Flagg reclassified, which allowed him to head to college one year earlier. A few months later, Cooper was committed to one of the best basketball colleges in the country, Duke University. Flagg capped off his final high school season leading Montverde to a perfect 33-0 record and a national title.

Before playing with Duke, Flagg signed an endorsement deal with New Balance, a company with Maine ties. The New Balance factory in Skowhegan, Maine, is about a 30-minute drive from Newport, and it holds a tent sale every year that Cooper went to with his family as a kid.

All Cooper did in his one year with Duke was average 19 points, 7.5 rebounds, four assists, and over a block and a steal per game. Duke lost in the Final Four, but Cooper won virtually every Player of the Year Award and locked himself into the No. 1 overall pick. The only question was, what team would win the lottery for Cooper? The Dallas Mavericks turned a 1.8% chance into the No. 1 pick to land Cooper.

Before Cooper and Ace teamed up to win a state title for the Nokomis High School basketball team, they also played together on the football field. I had the opportunity to talk to their youth and middle school football coach, Eric Rowell.

“He (Cooper) played quarterback on offense and defensive end on defense,” Rowell said. “He was hardworking, a great teammate, and a super athlete, throwing or running with the ball. Smart, he could see the field and make good decisions. He had the playbook down, and I could add plays weekly. He was a sponge and extremely competitive.”

Rowell knew Cooper from a young age, as his son Landon was a classmate. Cooper stopped playing football after his eighth-grade season — around the time he was starting to get scholarship offers from colleges for basketball — but Ace played as a freshman at Nokomis and was all-conference.

“I joke with his parents about how they should have stuck with football, but I guess this basketball thing is working out for them,” Rowell said.

It didn’t take long for folks to notice Cooper’s skill on the basketball court.

“I thought he could possibly make it to the NBA if he continued to grow and improve from watching him in middle school,” Rowell said. “First round or first overall pick didn’t cross my mind. He certainly had all the intangibles: hard work, drive, talent, competitiveness, court vision, humility, unselfishness, athleticism and improving his teammates. The whole package.”

Rowell went on: “When he was chosen to play for the USA basketball U17 team at 15, he won a gold medal and received one of the five most outstanding awards at the tournament. He was chosen at 16 to be on the team that would get Team USA ready for the Olympics, and played great and held his own against the pros. It was clear to anyone who didn’t know him by then that he was a lock to make it to the NBA.”

With the college basketball season over, Cooper came back to Newport, Maine, to see his former classmates at Nokomis graduate on June 7.

“They definitely kept it low-key and didn’t make it all about themselves. They just wanted to see all their friends graduate. They came in the back door, stayed upstairs and watched through the window in the media room,” Rowell said. “Then came down to see everyone and take pictures with friends if they wanted. They kinda snuck up on me in the hallway by the back staircase. We were taking pictures, and they came up behind me and grabbed my shoulder. I hugged them and said, ‘That’s my quarterback and tight end’. Congratulated Cooper and told him good luck in Dallas, if that is where he is going, and told Ace good luck at U Maine.”

On Wednesday night, Eric will be among the many folks from the Newport area and the rest of Maine watching as a local kid is taken first overall in the NBA draft. Cooper will go from a town of 1,500 to a city of 1.3 million.

(Editor’s Note: I know this is a Mets/baseball site, but Flagg is a fellow Mainer and I wanted to share his story with you guys.)