The boy from Maine, Cooper Flagg, is going to be a household name in the NBA and he is going be damn humble when he does it.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Flagg said at the draft combine. “If you have a goal, if you have a dream and you put your mind to it … I mean, honestly, for me it wasn’t real until I was in high school, but I always loved the game of basketball. I always put the work in. I always wanted to be the best that I could be.”
It’s extremely likely Flagg will be packing his bags to move to Dallas, after the team won the draft lottery in a shock result.
“As far as Dallas goes, they’ve got a lot of really good pieces,” Flagg said. “D-Live, coming from Duke, that’s pretty cool. So I think it would be a really cool opportunity.”
The 18-year-old averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists while leading Duke to the Final Four in his one college season. He shot 48 percent from the field, 39 percent from 3-point range, 84 percent from the foul line.
“I’m grateful to get this opportunity, any opportunity to any team, to be able to hear my name called on draft night and shake Adam Silver’s hand,” Flagg said. “I’m just really excited for this whole opportunity. The environment, just go through this process, not everybody gets to do this, so I just feel really blessed.”
The kid is already talking like someone that plenty of younger kids can look up to one day.
“Growing up in Maine, there’s people that told me I would never be able to make it to the next level or play Division I basketball because I’m from Maine and nobody plays up there,” Flagg said. “I think just that message of ‘it doesn’t matter where you’re from,’ as long as you work hard and trust yourself and trust your ability, then you can really accomplish anything.”