Shawn Pelletier remembers the moment when his heart sank.
It was fall of 2022, and Pelletier – a father of four basketball-playing boys – was home in Madawaska, Maine, when he received unprompted news from his youngest son. The World Cup was on, and Lawson, 6 years old at the time, had taken an affinity for soccer.
“He was like, you know dad, ‘I don’t really like basketball. I’m not going to play anymore. I’m just going to play soccer,’” Pelletier said.
Pelletier theorized that Lawson had gotten a little tired of getting dragged around to his older brothers’ tournaments. But he was crushed.
“‘If that’s what you want, that’s what you want,’” Pelleter told Lawson. “And I looked at my wife and I said, ‘I think I just had a heart attack,’ because we’re pretty big on basketball.”
But then something cool happened this past January. A year later, the family made the five-and-a-half hour drive from their home near the Canadian border south to Portland to watch Cooper Flagg, the No. 1-ranked high school recruit in the country and the pride of Newport, Maine, return for a homecoming unlike any other. His Montverde Academy (Fla.) team traveled north to play a pair of games. Billed as the “Maine Event,” it represented one more chance for Flagg to play in front of his hometown fans before he heads off to Duke this fall.
As the 6-foot-9 Flagg put on a show, gliding through the air for dunk after dunk, Lawson watched in awe. Pelletier watched his now-8-year-old son’s eyes light up. Lawson soon became an expert on Flagg. “He’s kind of been Cooper’s hype man at our school,” Pelletier said.
When Lawson was assigned to write a biography, Flagg was his subject. A writing prompt in which Lawson had to list his most important necessities included mom and dad, water and food, and of course … Cooper Flagg.
And since seeing him play, Lawson has rediscovered basketball. He has started playing again, and he wants to model his game after Flagg.
“I think what Cooper has done for Lawson, he’s kind of reinvigorated his love for basketball,” Pelletier said. “It just lit that spark. He’s in love with him.”
Lawson is not alone. Across Maine, Flagg has become a beacon of hope, a never-before-seen inspiration for the state’s next generation of young ballers. He’s opened doors for a previously overlooked region of hoops. A 17-year-old who projects as a top pick in next year’s NBA Draft, Flagg has made a profound impact. He’s allowed the Pine Tree State to dream.
“These kids, they believe in themselves,” Pelletier said. “Before it was always like, no kid from Maine is ever going to play high-level basketball or make an impact or even play in the NBA. And Cooper comes along. He’s given them that hope that hey, maybe I can do this.”
One of us
Step inside Eastern Maine Sports Academy – a training facility in Veazie, just north of Bangor – and the basketball boom that Flagg created is evident. There is a framed No. 32 Flagg Maine United jersey in the lobby. Banners of both his Maine and National Player of the Year awards are hanging. The SLAM Magazine cover with Flagg in a Duke jersey is featured.
Matt MacKenzie, a former player and coach at Husson University, started his own player development brand in 2011 called RESULTS Basketball and now owns this gym. When Flagg was in sixth grade, he went to MacKenzie to improve his game – specifically honing in on ball handling, shooting and decision-making – and the two have been working together since. As Flagg’s fame grew, MacKenzie has seen participation numbers in his camps, clinics and weekly training sessions increase.
“Kids are often asking what the process looked like for Cooper and some of the things he did growing up to get to where he’s at,” MacKenzie said.
Of course, it’s unlikely any kid will follow the same path as the uniquely gifted Flagg. But he represents that anything is possible.
Andy Bedard, a former Maine basketball star, has been coaching Flagg since he was in the third grade. One of the few who watched Flagg’s development up close, Bedard remembers going on radio stations before Flagg became well known and proclaiming that he was the best player in the country.
“(The response) was really like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Proud coach. Nobody from Maine’s ever the best player in the country,’” Bedard said. “The typical stigma that comes with this. And I’m like, ‘Well, you watch.’”
Bedard was right, of course. Buzz had started growing around Flagg in eighth grade, but it was his freshman season at Nokomis High School when he caught everyone’s attention. Flagg won Maine Gatorade Player of the Year and led Nokomis to a state championship, It was clear this kid was different.
“By the end of that season, the entire state knew who he was,” MacKenzie said.
But in the blink of an eye, he was gone. Following his freshman season, seeking more exposure and better competition, Flagg transferred to Montverde Academy in Florida. Still, Flagg fever caught fire in Maine. And most importantly, he became a symbol for young players.
Now they could really dream.
“Now the proof is in the pudding,” Bedard said. “Everybody tells you that you can be something, you can do something, but until you see it, until you can actually lay eyes on it … he’s a Newport kid, obviously he’s gifted physically beyond belief but he has the Maine accent. He likes to hunt and fish. He’s a family kid. He drives around in a pickup truck. He loves Maine culture.
“He looks like us, talks like us, and now we can point to it, and be like, well of course I can go be that.”
Putting Maine on the map
MacKenzie was traveling to Los Angeles with Flagg last year to Proactive Sports Performance, watching the process of how they prepare athletes on and off the court for the NBA Draft, when an idea sparked. He wanted to bring some of that experience back to Maine. Last August, he invited some of the best middle school players around the state to his gym for a camp. It included on-court training, weight room performance testing, basketball-specific strength and conditioning, instruction on nutrition and more – serving as an introduction for the younger players to develop the habits and take the steps necessary to get their game to the next level.
MacKenzie then wanted Team Maine to compete on a national level. He reached out to kids from every county in the state – from Madawaska to Kittery – and held video meetings with each family. He knew it would be hard to secure commitments – the families would have to make big sacrifices with the travel required – but he received enough.
He got buy-in from Chad Babel, the CEO of MADE Hoops – a national grassroots basketball league sponsored by Nike with a middle school circuit. Team Maine was a go.
It was a game-changer. The only other team from Maine that had ever played on the MADE Hoops circuit was Flagg’s Maine United team, which made a legendary run to the Peach Jam U16 championship last summer, a run that essentially put Maine basketball on the national map.
“None of this would have happened without Cooper Flagg and Maine United blazing the trail,” MacKenzie said. “We’re following the lead of what Maine United already started.”
Still, they didn’t know what to expect. When Pelletier – whose second-oldest son Quinn played for Team Maine – traveled to Virginia for the first tournament in December, he was unsure as these kids from Maine went up against the likes of Team Durant, Team Melo and other teams funded by NBA players and run out of major cities.
“I remember looking at a parent and saying like, ‘Jeez, I hope we don’t lose by like 40 every game,’” Pelletier said.
But Team Maine held its own. The seventh graders placed in the top four and were invited back for the spring circuit, and the eighth graders took their lumps but stayed competitive.
The exposure has been huge. These middle schoolers are traveling to play in major cities, going against top competition, getting in front of evaluators and receiving opportunities that wouldn’t have been possible if they were just playing in Maine. Flagg opened that door.
“A lot of people would argue that exposure in the seventh and eighth grade isn’t the most important thing in the world, but for them to be able to play the highest competition in the country at a young age, it’s only going to aid in their development,” MacKenzie said. “For them to at least be able to get eyes on them and for people to continue to gain respect for Maine basketball as a whole is just so important for the culture here.”
And of course, the kids look up to Flagg. Oli Higgins, a 6-foot-7 forward from Brewer who just finished eighth grade but dreams of playing high-major Division 1 basketball, played on Team Maine. Flagg is his biggest inspiration.
“Without him, I definitely would not be in the position I am now as a player,” Higgins said. “He means a lot to the kids in Maine.
“Not a lot of kids even around the country get a chance to do this,” Higgins said of playing on Team Maine. “I’m so fortunate he came around because none of it would have happened if he didn’t become as big as he was. I’ve never played against better competition or traveled as far as I have with Team Maine.”
Because of Flagg, Maine can’t be overlooked anymore.
“Now they have to take a second glance at these kids from Maine,” MacKenzie said. “Now, you gotta do a double take because Maine hasn’t just produced one of (the best), Maine has produced the best prospect in the country. And that’s all because of Cooper Flagg.”
Giving back
A few summers ago, MacKenzie was hosting a camp at his gym in conjunction with Celtics radio voice Brian Scalabrine, who is a mentor for Flagg and has become heavily involved in the amateur hoops scene. Flagg was there as a counselor. He saw 11-year-old Tyrus Baxter playing 1-on-1 with another counselor.
Flagg approached them and said he had next. He and Baxter proceeded to play for the next 40 minutes, and Flagg was dominating his younger opponent. But then Baxter scored a bucket on him.
“Cooper’s immediate response was to throw it off the backboard and dunk on him,” Baxter’s dad, Mark, recalled. “He was like, ‘Good job buddy, but don’t forget.’”
The two laughed and high-fived each other after. It was a fun-natured interaction. But the scene spoke to Flagg’s character. As big of a star as he is, he’s never forgotten his roots. It matters to him to not only be an inspiration to the next generation but also to maintain relationships with them.
Flagg follows several younger players on social media, and routinely checks on them. He likes their Instagram posts. Mark Baxter, who’s the co-founder of RESULTS Basketball, recently had a video call with MacKenzie. Flagg was with him, and the first thing he asked about was Tyrus.
“It’s like, hey jeez, here’s a guy that really wouldn’t have to spend that amount of time caring about my progress, but he does,” Mark said. “But because Cooper stays engaged with his community, the kids are constantly getting that influx of new excitement. It’s really a big deal.”
When Flagg returned with Montverde for the “Maine Event” in January, he met with Team Maine, spoke at their practice and gave them courtside seats and shirts that said “Cooper’s Close Friends.”
“He's got a really good sense of making kids feel comfortable and making kids feel like they can approach him,” MacKenzie said. “He gets on the court, he’s not afraid to go play 1-on-1 with these younger kids or jump into a game of ‘pig.’ So I think that they see that he’s just a kid like them and he’s a Mainer at heart.
“Everybody kind of aspires to be like Cooper Flagg at this point. He’s the face, he’s the image of Maine basketball, of New England basketball, really. He’s already started to give these kids the idea that if a kid from Newport, Maine, can do it, so can I.”
