Newport, Maine.
Inhabitants…roughly 3,000.
It’s right here the place the epicenter of the largest story in highschool basketball originates.
It’s right here the place one of the crucial extremely touted highschool prospects in latest reminiscence started his hoops odyssey.
A journey that technically could be traced again to the early Nineties. That’s when Cooper Flagg’s mom, Kelly, was turning heads on the hardwood at Nokomis Regional Excessive Faculty on her method to scoring 1,257 profession factors. Nokomis would turn into the identical college the place virtually three a long time later, certainly one of her three sons would start capturing the eye of the basketball universe.
Kelly went on to play DI ball on the College of Maine from 1995-99, the place she launched into an unimaginable run that included 4 consecutive American East titles and making appearances within the NCAA Match all 4 years. Her senior yr, when she was the crew captain, Kelly was a starter and led the Black Bear over Stanford to this system’s first and solely NCAA Match win.
She was already a Maine hoops legend within the ’90s, however her contributions to the sport had been solely simply starting.
Enter…Cooper Flagg. It wouldn’t take lengthy for Kelly to note that Cooper—born seven years after her collegiate run and a minute after his twin brother Ace—wasn’t the standard elementary college child. Seeking to problem him, she enrolled him on a 4th grade rec league crew—as a 2nd grader.
“I bear in mind the ball was going out of bounds on the baseline, the opposite crew’s finish of the ground. He jumped up within the air and palmed the ball. Cooper didn’t simply chuck it again inbounds to anyone, he stored it in play and located a teammate on the similar time. Moments later, he sprinted right down to the opposite finish of the ground and caught it for a layup. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a 7-year-old have these sorts of instincts,” she remembers. “It was obvious to us that yr when the rec season ended that he wanted extra. That isn’t what you usually see in a 7- or 8-year-old child.
“There have been a number of weekends we went to play and they might solely have 5 or 6 youngsters,” she provides. “As a second grader, he by no means left the ground and would simply be exhausted as a result of they’d play two or three video games in a day. The subsequent yr, we bought him on a crew as a 3rd grader with fifth grade boys. That was a very good match for him. Their crew performed extra of a 5 in, 5 out type.”
“I bear in mind the primary couple of practices simply being actually powerful. I might come out actually drained and exhausted,” says Cooper. “I feel I had a bunch of bruises. It was simply actually tough to begin out due to how a lot older everybody was. I used to be additionally simply as tall as them from a very younger age, so I didn’t actually really feel misplaced, however you would inform that they had been extra bodily developed than me… That’s one thing that I look again on and I’m actually grateful for. Each of my mother and father all the time pushed me to play towards older competitors. It helped me to develop lots earlier.”
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On the finish of Cooper’s third grade yr, Kelly was approached by Andy Bedard, whom she had gone to varsity with however had subsequently misplaced contact with. He had gotten her quantity from Amy Vachon, the present girls’s basketball head coach on the College of Maine and expressed curiosity in having her sons be part of the youth crew he was teaching, which additionally included his personal son, Kaden. Andy had begun listening to rumblings that Kelly’s youngsters had been fairly good at basketball. There was just one little drawback: Andy was primarily based out of Portland—an hour and a half away from the place the Flaggs lived.
However with the household dedicated to the sport (Cooper’s dad, Ralph, additionally hooped collegiately at Jap Maine Group School) and the boys’ continued growth, they determined to make the journey a number of occasions per week, on weekdays. At occasions, these journeys even included quite a few relations and automobile swaps. When Kelly wasn’t in a position to drive the boys all the best way to apply, she says her father would take them midway, the place Ralph, who labored in Portland, would meet them. The boys would hop in his automobile, and he’d drive them the remainder of the best way to apply.
“We might then hop within the automobile, and I might have already made a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Generally we ordered a pizza forward and grabbed it on the best way in order that they might get some meals,” says Kelly. “We might get down there for apply at 4:30. We practiced till 6 or 6:30, after which we’d head again house. There have been a number of [long] nights for 10-year-olds [where] we had been getting house at 9 at night time on a college night time. It was an enormous dedication, and we did that twice per week, nevertheless it was all price it.”
To assist cross time in these lengthy automobile rides, Kelly would have the boys watch recordings of the Nineteen Eighties Celtics’ championship groups. It helped set the muse for his or her basketball information, serving as a method to study the sport’s historical past whereas additionally doubling as elite movie examine classes… and three-plus hours of a lot wanted in-car leisure.
“We might all the time both have the ‘85 or ‘86 Celtics championship video games on or the Magic Johnson vs. Larry Chicken films. It instilled Chicken’s mindset inside me and Ace. How he was all the time the toughest employee, it doesn’t matter what,” remembers Cooper. “Particularly from that Celtics crew that performed towards the Rockets, it was extra in regards to the teamwork and the ball motion.”
By the point Cooper and Ace had been able to attend highschool, it was an apparent alternative the place they’d go—Nokomis Regional, the identical program the place their mother starred within the early ’90s, and, nicely, the one highschool within the metropolis of Newport.
They entered their freshman yr within the fall of 2021 beneath a singular set of circumstances. With the world nonetheless reeling from the consequences of a worldwide pandemic, Cooper, Ace and his teammates needed to put on masks whereas taking part in. However extra distinctive was the household affair that the chance offered. On the crew was additionally their older brother, Hunter, who was a senior. However because the season progressed, the roles between the youthful brothers and their oldest sibling started to shift.
“The crew was actually dangerous for years main as much as that yr and that run they’d,” Kelly says. “They had been 1-17 for 2 years in a row. In Hunter’s junior yr, they had been 3-15. Hunter was an enormous who bought a number of minutes and was a starter in his sophomore and junior years. Early on in [Cooper’s and Ace’s freshman] season, all three of them began. Cooper averaged six dunks a recreation in center college. The excitement that his title was producing within the state of Maine round basketball was extraordinary earlier than he even performed his first highschool recreation. Individuals simply couldn’t wait to see him play. A few video games into the season after a profitable preseason, the coach had Hunter and one other senior coming off the bench. The each of them dealt with it so nicely though it was a tricky capsule to swallow. All of the seniors had been so gracious and had been simply excited to have a successful crew. Even the mother and father of the senior boys had been superb.”
That season ended up being one for the ages. The crew went 21-1 on their method to capturing the state title. Cooper started to indicate the identical flashes of elite expertise that the remainder of the world has now caught up on. He averaged 21 factors, 10 rebounds and 6 assists that season as a ninth grader. The USA Basketball web site highlights one specific outing the place he dropped 32 factors, 13 rebounds, 9 assists, 5 blocks and three steals in an early January recreation.
“[Having Ace, Hunter, and me on the same team] was all the time one thing we had been enthusiastic about. It was a very enjoyable yr normally as a result of it was going to be our final yr with Hunter. We knew that we in all probability weren’t going to be going again to Nokomis after that yr, so we had a number of enjoyable with it,” says Cooper. “Successful the state championship collectively was a dream we all the time had, and one thing we wished to do collectively for the group… We knew what the crew was going to be as a result of we had a fall ball crew that had been taking part in collectively because the summer season. Ace and I had been taking part in up with the varsity [team] in the course of the summer season.”
As if the Flaggs’ story to this point wasn’t already a Hollywood-type script, the story behind the supporting solid of that championship crew actually drives house the purpose. When Kelly was a senior at Nokomis, she shared the ground with teammates Penny, Jaime, Katie and Amanda—quick ahead some three a long time later, and their respective sons—Dawson Townsend, Ethan Cote, Alex Grant and Madden White—had been all now sharing that very same flooring with Kelly’s youngsters at the exact same college. A reminder of simply how small the Newport group actually is.
After the movie-esque season, although, got here a troublesome resolution. The household needed to determine between persevering with their highschool careers at Nokomis or making the sacrifice of relocating searching for an opportunity to take their video games to the subsequent degree. In the long run, the latter took priority, and Cooper and Ace discovered themselves on their method to Florida for his or her sophomore campaigns, enrolling at nationwide powerhouse Montverde Academy. Other than that includes an unmatched alumni listing that features Cade Cunningham, Scottie Barnes, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid (transferred out), D’Angelo Russell and RJ Barrett, amongst a plethora of different NBA gamers, the Eagles are famend for his or her state-of-the-art amenities and taking part in a top-notch nationwide schedule that competes towards the nation’s prime expertise. It’s been considered the closest factor to a DI program at the highschool degree. In reality, since 2021, Montverde has had 12 gamers chosen within the NBA Draft. In distinction, throughout that very same interval, Duke has had eight and Kentucky has had seven.
“There have been these whispers a few child that was doubtlessly superb, from Maine of all locations, they usually had been taking part in at The Huge Home, which is half-hour from our faculty in Florida in a Made Hoops occasion,” remembers Montverde head coach Kevin Boyle. “So, I went there to look at a few of our youthful guys and to see what sort of potential Cooper had. You may simply see he had a competitiveness and athleticism that at minimally, he was going to be an impressive participant.”
The transfer to Montverde helped elevate Cooper’s profile on a nationwide scale whereas additionally taking his recreation up a notch. In 2022, he turned the youngest ever USA Basketball Male Athlete of the 12 months.
The aggressive facet of Cooper isn’t any extra evident than whenever you hear him speak in regards to the driveway battles he’s had together with his household all through the years. These would get actually heated generally, and nobody was secure from it, not even his personal mom.
“Numerous hours spent within the driveway battling towards each of [my brothers]. Too many fights to recollect. Simply a number of enjoyable we used to have taking part in towards one another and simply battling,” says Cooper. “Me and my mother used to battle on a regular basis [too]. I feel the final time we performed was in fifth grade. She truly bought damage after we had been taking part in, and we haven’t performed since. So I by no means beat her. I used to be beating her that one time. I used to be up 9 to eight in a recreation to 11, however then she bought damage.”
“That’s not precisely the best way I bear in mind it taking place,” says Kelly, after getting wind of Cooper’s 1-on-1 recollection. “He could have been within the lead, however I’m positive had I not torn my meniscus, I might have come again and crushed him in that recreation. I drove to the left and did a tough leap cease. He went flying, and I might have scored and tied up the sport. After I planted it, I simply felt [like] one thing was not proper. So, he technically has by no means crushed me.
“I didn’t play them that always,” she provides. “Each infrequently, I might get in there simply to remind them who the boss was. All three of our boys had battles. These occurred day by day, or at the least a number of occasions per week. Each single time that the three of them went out to play, we knew that it was going to finish in some form of bodily battle or verbal altercation. There was normally somebody bleeding on the finish. The ball was chucked throughout the road. It didn’t finish nicely. I attribute that to their competitiveness, particularly in these early days of eager to win.”
Tales of simply how aggressive Cooper is are rampant. When Coach Boyle is requested for a narrative that completely displays Cooper’s character, he laughs for a couple of seconds earlier than recalling the time Cooper needed to be separated from a apply scuffle…together with his personal twin brother.
“It was Cooper and his brother swinging at one another in apply after they had been on opposing groups,” Boyle says. “They bought tousled in a couple of performs and we needed to break them up after throwing punches at one another. It’s a superb story as a result of it simply exhibits the competitiveness in him as a result of the household all love one another dearly, however after they’re on the courtroom, they’re competing. It’s one of many few fights at apply we’ve had since I’ve been at Montverde. It introduced a smile to my face, it introduced me again to the St. Patrick [HS in Elizabeth, NJ] days.”
As spectacular as his recreation is, it’s the truth that he’s nonetheless solely 16 years previous that basically hits. He’ll be 17 for his first 4 months of faculty since his birthday isn’t till December. Past the talent set, exhausting dedication to each ends of the ground, spectacular athleticism, otherworldly confidence and poised demeanor, Cooper is barely sufficiently old to be in his present grade.
This previous summer season, although, Cooper Flagg-mania hit a brand new tier. Except you spent the hotter months of 2023 residing beneath a rock, you probably noticed highlights of Cooper in your feed in some unspecified time in the future whereas scrolling in your cellphone. His title would pattern on Twitter periodically and movies of him completely manhandling his friends drew the eye of hoop followers and added hearth to the frenzy. This all led to an epic run on the Nike EYBL Peach Jam.
Enjoying for Maine United, which earlier within the spring appeared to be in jeopardy of even qualifying for Peach Jam, Cooper and firm ended up occurring a Cinderella-type run within the days that adopted. Though they entered the U16 Peach Jam with a 9-9 document, the crew went undefeated (4-0) in pool play on its method to the championship recreation, the place they finally fell brief. Flagg averaged 25.4 factors, 13.0 rebounds and 5.7 assists within the event and even had LeBron James strategy him at one level to cut it up—an interplay that made the rounds on-line.
“It’d be powerful for anyone to do a scouting report on me by way of how they’re going to take me out of a recreation,” Cooper says. “They’ll take sure components of my recreation away, however I feel that I’m too versatile and an excessive amount of of a well-rounded participant that no crew can take me out of the sport.
“When it comes to difficult, I don’t actually know if I may say one thing that’s actually difficult as a result of many of the issues that folks would see as difficult are an end result of some alternative that I’ve been given. It’s a must to take a look at it in that means.”
For Cooper, although, it wasn’t nearly surprising the world in main an unbeknownst AAU crew from Maine, of all locations, to the title recreation of probably the most prestigious grassroots circuit on the earth—all after barely sustaining a .500 document going into the ultimate session. It was extra about the truth that this exact same AAU program was filled with teammates that he met when he would journey 3+ hours for apply as a fourth grader. It was the fruits of an virtually decade-long journey alongside some youngsters from The Pine Tree State with comparable hoop desires as his.
Not lengthy after, Cooper discovered himself having to make yet one more high-stake, life-altering resolution this previous summer season: keep in his present class and proceed to the dominate everybody in entrance of him, or reclassify up and be part of the senior class of 2024, which might expedite his final dream of going professional in the future. He selected the latter, in fact.
And though everybody watched his meteoric rise this yr on social media, what they didn’t see was that behind the scenes, Cooper was taking summer season lessons when he wasn’t touring across the nation and tearing up each occasion he stepped foot in, all in an effort to put himself on observe to have sufficient credit to reclassify as much as the Class of 2024.
“It was actually powerful as a result of after I was house, the principle factor I used to be doing was schoolwork,” Cooper says. “I needed to concentrate on schoolwork over seeing my mates that I hadn’t seen in months. Attempting to steadiness all these various things was powerful however one thing that I needed to do.”
All these earlier choices led to this present resolution, his most essential one but. Deciding between UConn and Duke. Cooper visited each campuses in latest weeks, and when it got here time to select a vacation spot, he went together with his intestine feeling, identical to he has with each different resolution.
“I feel after I bought on campus at Duke, I actually began to really feel it, to be trustworthy,” he says. “That’s one thing the coaches undoubtedly burdened to me, that when you get to campus, it’s one thing it’s a must to really feel. And [I knew then] I wished to go to Duke and that’s the place I wished to play faculty basketball. What went into the choice, I imply, I used to be simply in search of a training workers I used to be actually snug with, however [also] a coach and workers that was actually going to carry me accountable. Being on the go to, I bought to see them in apply, and see how they had been holding their guys accountable, and actually pushing them to be higher. For me, ever since I used to be a little bit child, I all the time had desires of taking part in Division I basketball on the highest degree. Particularly with a spot like Duke, as soon as we bought to campus, we felt it.
“I’m honored that I’ve the chance to affix The Brotherhood, and hopefully I’ll be one of many gamers that recruits are some day and somebody they’ll see themselves being. Particularly from all of the love I noticed this final weekend after I was there, it made me actually excited, all of the [Cameron] Crazies and the followers. I feel it’s going to be a very thrilling yr and [fans] ought to simply prepare as a result of I do know that I’m all about successful, so I’m making an attempt to maintain that successful tradition that Duke has.”
In Durham, after carrying No. 32 his complete life—a jersey quantity retired by Duke because of Christian Laettner—Cooper has chosen to put on No. 2 as a substitute subsequent yr, in honor of his shut pal Donovan Kurt, who attended Nokomis Regional again in Maine (he wore No. 2) and handed away final yr after an extended battle with mind most cancers (go to right here to assist households of youngsters combating most cancers in Maine).
“[This] is one thing that I’m making an attempt to hold with me. [I want to] show that children from Maine could make it in the event that they put their minds to it they usually actually work exhausting sufficient,” says Cooper. “That’s one thing that I’m taking a number of pleasure in. It’s proving to all people from Maine, the remainder of the nation, and around the globe, that children from Maine could make it.”
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Portraits by Marcus Stevens.