Cooper Flagg grew up watching tape of the 1980s Celtics. And now some of those Boston legends are watching him turn into an NBA rising star.
Flagg has been fielding a lot of comparisons to Larry Bird, and there are few people as qualified to weigh in on that subject than Cedric Maxwell.
The former NBA Finals MVP won two championships alongside Bird in the 1980s, the same era of Celtics basketball that inspired Flagg’s team-first mentality. And Maxwell evoked the Bird comparison Friday night when the Bangor Daily News asked him about Flagg.
“He reminds me a lot of Larry,” Maxwell said about the rookie from Newport, Maine. “Shooting the basketball, being a facilitator, being able to block shots.”
Those comments came at the TD Garden as Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks were about to take on the Celtics.
Maxwell, a small forward who played 11 seasons in the NBA, won the finals MVP in 1981 with the Celtics. He was a key piece to the Celtics’ success during the 80s, and that fruitful era helped inspire Flagg’s family. The rookie’s parents, Kelly and Ralph Flagg, have previously explained how those Celtic teams influenced the way they approached the game of basketball — and in turn, inspired their kids as well.
“It’s been documented that Cooper watched an awful lot of Larry Bird film and tape growing up, and I think that’s the way that those guys played — they always made the right play, made the right passes, and played a true brand of team basketball,” Kelly Flagg said in Maine last summer. “So I think that’s part of what we grew up on, which then meant that’s what they grew up on.”
And now, one of those Celtics legends that Cooper Flagg grew up watching is impressed as the 19-year-old continues to rise in the NBA.
“His future is so bright, when you think of him as a player and what he’s able to do,” Maxwell added about Flagg.