Cooper Flagg isn’t the only twin enjoying NBA draft night.
As Flagg is set to become the first player from Maine ever to be the number one overall pick in the NBA, two sisters from southern Maine drove up to his hometown of Newport to revel in the moment.
Sisters Lori Robertson and Lisa Terroni got up Wednesday morning and hit the road for a few hours to join the watch party on the shore of Sebasticook Lake.
In a marina warehouse space provided by Marine Shore Solutions, Robertson and Terroni set up their chairs early in front of a giant screen where the watch partiers are expecting to see Flagg drafted first overall by the Dallas Mavericks later Wednesday night.
As Maine sports fans and former high school basketball players, the sisters couldn’t pass up experiencing this historic moment in Flagg’s hometown.
“You have to be here,” Robertson said. “It’s a once in a lifetime chance. So yes, we got up early and we came.”
Robertson and Terroni grew up with five brothers who helped them become tough basketball players, and as twins, they resonate with the journey shared by Flagg and his twin brother Ace. That bond is hard to explain, they said, but they are confident that Flagg understands it.
Growing up in Hollis, they said they couldn’t have imagined a kid from Maine rising as far as Flagg has.
“No way. It’s like a miracle,” Terroni said. “I don’t know, it’s crazy.”
And that miracle can make a massive difference for the other Maine kids seeing what Flagg is accomplishing.
“It’s huge for the kids that are watching. ‘I can’ is now the new motto,” Robertson said. “He has just shown so much, and proved so much to so many children. And we’re just here to support him in any little way that we can.”
The identical twin sisters played together at Bonny Eagle High School and so closely resemble each other that they were able to swap jerseys when one of them was in foul trouble, they recounted with a laugh.
Terroni said Flagg’s ascendance to the NBA is “going to change everything” for basketball in small towns across Maine, and Robertson described him as both gifted and humble.
After spending the afternoon fishing, they felt the watch party setting right next to the lake was quintessentially Maine.
“Just to sit here, Everything looks like Maine,” Terroni said. “Old, quiet, peaceful. Usually when you see an NBA draft, it is not this peaceful.”
Terroni also expects to get some Mavericks gear if and when Flagg becomes a member of the team.
“Even though I love the Celtics,” she added.
