Until a few years ago, no one would have believed it. On Wednesday, it was a foregone conclusion.
A kid from Maine is the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft for the first time ever.
The Dallas Mavericks made it official Wednesday night by selecting Cooper Flagg first overall at the league draft in Brooklyn, New York.
Flagg told the Today Show ahead of the draft that he expected his mind to be “going at a million miles an hour” when hearing his name called and learning his NBA destination.
“I’m just going to try and be present, enjoy the moment as much as I can,” Flagg said.
And Flagg was most excited to share the moment with his family, he told Today’s Craig Melvin.
“I think it’s a dream come true for all of them, and me as well,” Flagg said.
As a freshman at Nokomis Regional High School in 2022, Flagg helped deliver a state championship for his hometown of Newport.
Flagg and his twin brother, Ace Flagg, left to play at national basketball powerhouse Montverde Academy in Florida after that one championship season at Nokomis. Then Flagg continued his meteoric rise with a dominant season at Duke University where he nabbed nearly every national college player of the year award.
The 18-year-old has been considered the favorite to be this year’s first pick since he reclassified from the 2025 class to 2024 two years ago.
The Mavericks made no secret about their intent to select Flagg after they won the NBA draft lottery in May with some of the worst odds in history. And they happily accepted that gift on Wednesday night.
Flagg is now set to start his NBA career with a Dallas team that is just one season removed from a trip to the NBA Finals. The versatile wing will join an already loaded lineup that was hampered by injuries this past season.
The Mavericks add Flagg to a talented core of three former NBA champions: newly re-signed but still injured Kyrie Irving, big man Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson. Center Dereck Lively II made the NBA All-Rookie Second Team in 2024, and like both Flagg and Irving, Lively played his college ball at Duke University.
Flagg’s arrival in Dallas is sure to help electrify a beleaguered fanbase that was distraught after the Mavericks front office dealt superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February.
That heavily criticized move looks better and better thanks to the Mavericks’ good fortune in the draft lottery, and the resulting ability to mix Flagg’s two-way versatility and tremendous upside with an skilled lineup of championship-caliber veterans has Dallas positioned to compete in the Western Conference right away.
“I could see him being somebody who could come right in and help them a lot on both ends of the floor,” Flagg’s longtime player development coach Matt MacKenzie told the Bangor Daily News earlier in June.
Flagg and MacKenzie had been in Los Angeles training ahead of the draft in preparation for NBA Summer League, which gets underway in Las Vegas on July 10. After much anticipation, we now know that Flagg will be wearing a Mavericks jersey when that summer league action begins in a few weeks.
