Cooper Flagg has declared for the NBA draft, but his ultimate destination is still unknown.
That will be determined by the NBA draft lottery on May 12, and the winner of that drawing is all-but-certain to select Flagg first overall.
So for a few more weeks we won’t know where the Newport native will wind up in the NBA. But what is already crystal clear is that, wherever Flagg winds up, he is sure to bring a legion of Maine fans with him.
Don’t expect many Mainers to suddenly dispatch of their longheld loyalty to the Boston Celtics. But as he did with the often-hated Duke University, Flagg is poised to have Maine fans spending time and energy supporting a team that they may never have envisioned rooting for before.
Take Brandon McCarthy, a longtime North Carolina Tar Heels fan who had his own impressive high school basketball career for Katahdin in Stacyville.
“I really didn’t want him to go to Duke. But as soon as he did — he means so much to Maine basketball that, wherever he goes in the NBA, I’ll become an NBA fan of that team,” McCarthy said at the beginning of the March Madness college tournament.
You can expect that to be an overwhelming sentiment across Maine as Flagg heads to the NBA. As Mainers were cheering Flagg and the Blue Devils along during the tournament, people repeatedly told the Bangor Daily News that they had never watched Duke as much as they had this season, or were putting their hatred for the North Carolina school on hold until Flagg had finished his time there.
And now that Flagg looks to turn the page to the NBA, that same attitude and support is sure to follow. His decision and eventual NBA destination were already on folks’ minds in his hometown after Duke’s NCAA tournament run.
“I’m looking ahead to see what team he might end up with in the NBA,” longtime Newport resident Al Worden said in early April.
The three NBA teams that have the best chance of landing Flagg in the lottery are those with the worst record during the regular season: the Utah Jazz, the Washington Wizards and the Charlotte Hornets. Each of those teams have a 14 percent chance of winning the 14-team lottery.
But just because a team has the best odds doesn’t mean they will actually win that first pick. Just ask the Detroit Pistons, who started last year’s lottery with the best odds but slipped to the fifth pick during the drawing. Any of the 11 other teams in the lottery could also win that top spot.
Notably absent from that list and on the other end of the NBA standings are the Celtics. So unless a seismic trade were to come out of nowhere, Boston has no chance in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes — at least not for now.
Some Maine fans are already thinking about Flagg finding his way to Boston once his rookie contract ends.
Matt Fraser, who like Flagg grew up in a basketball family in Newport, had his eyes on that kind of a move.
“Hopefully it’s the Celtics eventually,” Fraser said about Flagg’s future.