Cooper Flagg launched his meteoric high school career in the gym at Nokomis Regional High School. And now Nokomis students will get to watch from that same gym as he gets drafted into the NBA.
Flagg will officially find out his NBA home at next Wednesday night’s draft, and his hometown of Newport will be watching along with the rest of the basketball world.
Footwear and apparel company New Balance, with whom Flagg has a significant endorsement deal, will be hosting a private, invite-only watch party Wednesday, June 25, at the high school in Newport.
School district Superintendent Mike Hammer said the event is geared mainly toward students, staff and their families. He wasn’t sure what the final attendance will be, but said the school has capacity for around 1,700 people in the gym and overflow for around 300 more in the auditorium.
Those in attendance will get to witness a hometown hero do something that Maine has never experienced before. Flagg is likely to be the first Mainer ever to be chosen first overall in the draft.
“It’s a huge thing,” Hammer said. “So we want to be able to have something for our kids to remember.”
Flagg has long been expected to be the overall first pick, and the Dallas Mavericks have left little doubt that they will use that first pick to draft the Newport native next week. Flagg is in Dallas this week for a Tuesday visit with the team, the only such official pre-draft visit for both Flagg and the team, according to earlier reports.
The June 25 draft watch party at Nokomis, announced by a New Balance event flyer shared by the Nokomis athletic department on Facebook, is billed as a chance to “celebrate Newport’s own” and will be held at the high school from 7 to 9 p.m. The event at the high school is private, by invitation only and not affiliated with the NBA, according to the hosts.
“Find out what’s next for Cooper Flagg, live from our hometown watch party,” the flyer says.
Flagg, along with twin brother Ace and older brother Hunter, helped lead the Nokomis Warriors to a 2022 Class A Maine state championship. Following that phenomenal freshman year for Cooper and Ace, they transferred to basketball powerhouse Montverde Academy in Florida, where they continued their winning ways at the national level.
Cooper Flagg signed his endorsement deal with New Balance last August ahead of his freshman year at Duke University, stressing the company’s Maine roots at the time. New Balance has a factory in Skowhegan.
New Balance also declared in a Monday Instagram post that June 25 will be “Flagg Day” as the NBA draft gets underway. The company is launching a new line of Flagg Day sweatshirts and T-shirts then.
The New Balance post notes that Flagg’s “journey to the game’s biggest arenas started with the work done in empty gyms,” and that certainly includes the gym at Nokomis Regional High School.
Hammer, the school superintendent, said the Flagg family is “definitely part of this community” and highlighted how people in the Newport area supported Flagg during his freshman year at Duke, including traveling to games during the NCAA tournament.
“People just know them as a family and as a group of individuals, and their integrity,” Hammer said. “So we just celebrate it all the time.”
The high school watch party flyer is also posted on the RSU 19 website, and includes an email address where invited members of the school community can RSVP.
The event at Nokomis will not be the only draft watch party in Flagg’s hometown. There will also be a draft night celebration at Hamlin’s Marina on Sebasticook Lake in Newport, according to a Facebook event post. That free celebration will benefit local youth sports programs and will include food trucks, sea plane rides, horse and foul shot competitions along with other festivities.
And farther south, there will be an official draft watch party at Rivalries Sports Bar and Restaurant in Falmouth. Tickets for that event cost $100 and all of the proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine, an organization that the Flagg family has strong ties to and has supported in both Maine and elsewhere.
The Falmouth watch party at Rivalries is capped at 75 tickets. Sixteen tickets remain available as of Tuesday, according to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine.
Newport wedding venue the Grove also announced on Facebook that it will be hosting a draft watch party, with some of the proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald House.