Like a lot of young basketball fans in Maine, Cooper Flagg grew up watching the Boston Celtics.
This week, he’ll be playing against them for the first time.
On Tuesday night, the Newport native and NBA rookie will square off against the team that helped inspire his relentless style of play. Flagg and his Dallas Mavericks teammates will host the Celtics at 8 p.m.
Both of Flagg’s parents, Kelly and Ralph Flagg, grew up watching the Larry Bird-era of Celtics basketball and went on to play in college. And just as the Flagg parents were influenced by the team-first style of play showcased by the likes of Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, Cooper Flagg and his siblings learned from those Celtics 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 told the Bangor Daily News this summer. “So I think that’s part of what we grew up on, which then meant that’s what they grew up on.”
Though Flagg is still just 19 years old, he has already grown into an NBA rising star. The 6-foot-9 forward set the record for points scored by a teenager during a single game, dropping 49 against the Charlotte Hornets last week.
He added 34 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists against the Houston Rockets over the weekend, and now is poised to face off against the Celtics in regular season action for the first time in his NBA career.
When Flagg was in the Boston area last year to play against Boston College as a member of the Duke Blue Devils, he told reporters that he grew up a Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots fan.
He and the injury-plagued Mavericks enter Tuesday’s game with a record of 19-30, which has them in 11th place in the Western Conference. The Celtics are currently 31-18, which is good enough for third place in the Eastern Conference.
Flagg has previously said that Bird is his favorite all-time favorite NBA player.
Maine basketball fans will also get a chance to see Flagg play the Celtics closer to home later this season. The Mavericks will be in Boston for a March 6 matchup.