To state the obvious, the Flaggs are a basketball family.
Cooper Flagg is launching his NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks, twin brother Ace Flagg is in his first year with the University of Maine Black Bears, and older brother Hunter Flagg joined them in leading Nokomis Regional High School to a state championship in 2022. Both of their parents, Kelly and Ralph Flagg, played college basketball.
What might be less obvious, at least to those outside the state of Maine, is just how similar the Flaggs are in their approach to the game. And there’s a reason for that, according to Kelly Flagg.
“I think that as Mainers, good Mainers, we were brought up on the Boston Celtics,” she told the Bangor Daily News recently when asked about the style of play that she and her husband brought to the court. “And our era was the Bird-Parish-McHale age group. In my opinion, that’s the best brand of basketball that’s ever been played as far as the purity of the game.”
That same brand of team-first basketball showcased by Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and others on the Celtics championship teams of the 1980s has rooted itself firmly in the Flagg family.
That Celtics era helped inspire Kelly Flagg, who went on to play at UMaine, and Ralph Flagg, who went on to play at Eastern Maine Technical College (now Eastern Maine Community College). And Kelly Flagg said they raised their kids on that same approach to the game.
Both Cooper and Ace Flagg are frequently credited for their effort on both sides of the ball, and their willingness to do whatever it takes to help their team win. A trip through the Bangor Daily News archives shows how Kelly and Ralph Flagg, like their sons now, brought a similarly relentless amount of effort and versatility on both offense and defense.
Kelly Flagg’s comments came during the youth basketball camp that Ace and Cooper Flagg hosted at UMaine earlier this month.
“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,” she said in Orono earlier this month. “So I think that’s part of what we grew up on, which then meant that’s what they grew up on.”
That meant watching some of the best players in the NBA work together to prioritize championships over individual accolades, grinding it out on the boards and making the extra pass when needed.
“And I think there are similarities in that we all have always been willing to do whatever we needed to do to win,” Kelly Flagg added. “And I think the boys both play that way as well. If it’s rebounding, or scoring, or passing or whatever they can do to help their team.”
She expects to see more of that this season with Ace Flagg at UMaine and Cooper Flagg with the Mavericks.
Cooper Flagg will get multiple chances to face off this season against the team he grew up watching, with the Mavericks hosting the Celtics on Jan. 3, 2026, and traveling to Boston on March 6.
