Maine may be Vacationland, but Cooper Flagg is still doing plenty of work while he’s here this week.
The NBA’s top draft pick is back in his home state to host a youth basketball camp with his twin brother, Ace, on Saturday and Sunday. And as a video from his Dallas Mavericks team showed on Friday, the work doesn’t stop for the 18-year-old rookie phenom from Newport.
The Mavs posted a video of Flagg at Eastern Maine Sports Academy in Veazie with the caption “Checkin’ in from Maine.” Flagg is seen taking and making multiple 3-point shots.
Eastern Maine Sports Academy is owned by Matt MacKenzie, the Flaggs’ longtime player development coach, who is also seen in the video passing the ball to Flagg during the shooting drill.
MacKenzie told the BDN earlier this week that both Cooper and Ace Flagg “take a lot of pride in being from Maine and being role models for others that aspire to be like them,” and are looking forward to the camp this weekend.
Like last year, the Flagg’s two-day youth camp will be held at the University of Maine in Orono, where Ace Flagg is starting his freshman year as a highly anticipated member of the UMaine men’s basketball team. The camp is sold out for the second-straight year.
“Maine is a very special place for both Cooper and Ace,” MacKenzie said. “And any time that they have to get back here and not only spend time around the kids but also spend quality time with their family and close friends, they want to be in the state.”
While Ace Flagg’s newest step in his basketball journey has allowed him to be back in Maine full time, Dallas has become Cooper Flagg’s new home base. MacKenzie said that the incoming NBA rookie was really looking forward to this trip back to Maine.
“He’s been spending a lot of time out there getting acclimated with the organization, spending time with members of the Dallas Mavericks, to just prepare for the upcoming season,” MacKenzie said. “But for him to be able to take a break to unplug and really just spend some quality time with the people that he’s closest to and that he loves so much — and then of course to be able to get in front of his fans and the people that support him from afar — it just means so much and it’s something that he takes pride in, he values and it’s something that I know that he’ll always want to do as long as he’s playing the game of basketball.”
As the Friday video shows, however, even a break for Cooper Flagg includes time working out on the basketball court.
