NEWPORT, Maine — Go to any sports blog or online comment section, and you might be inundated with opinions about what Cooper Flagg should or shouldn’t have done in Duke’s gutting Final Four loss against Houston on Saturday night.
Go just about anywhere in Newport, Maine, and you’ll probably find nothing but pride and excitement for what’s still to come for the likely number one pick in the NBA draft.
“It’s just been such a wonderful experience to see a kid from this town, to go ahead and do what he’s been able to do,” Al Worden said Monday as he was heading into Bear’s One Stop, a Newport convenience and grocery store. “A lot of people would really have become a different person. But he hasn’t, and his family hasn’t.”
Worden has a fairly good sense of the town, given that he’s spent the last 57 years there. And he’s never seen anything like what Newport has experienced with Cooper Flagg at the center of the basketball world.
“I don’t know what to say, but I know we love him,” Worden said. “And the family — great family, it’s a nice family.”
Robert Berg owns Bear’s One Stop, and he has been showing support for Flagg and Duke repeatedly with various messages on his sign along Moosehead Trail. Those messages evolved throughout the March Madness tournament, often wishing Flagg and the Blue Devils luck ahead of their next game, and sometimes predicting trouble for those opponents (it was “Houston you have a problem …” ahead of the Final Four matchup).
“Thank you! Cooper Flagg and Duke for a great season,” the sign read as of Monday. “Good luck in the NBA.”
The messages may have changed slightly, but the level of pride remains the same at the store and around town.
“It’s the same story on repeat. Newport is very proud of Cooper Flagg,” said Berg. “They’re just wicked proud and they still will be.”
Jim Ricker has been the town manager in Newport for 23 years and was police chief for 21 more before that. He said that Saturday night’s loss “doesn’t make any difference” in terms of how he or others he has spoken to feel about Flagg.
“We’re just as proud of him today as we were last week,” Ricker said. “Because you know that he gave it his very best. And that’s all you can ask for, win or lose.”
Joshua King doesn’t see that local pride dissipating at all after one loss.
“If you could win every game, everybody would,” King said at Muffler King Auto on Monday.
Wins and losses with Flagg aren’t exactly theoretical either for King, who coached Flagg in football from third to sixth grade.
King said Flagg was “awesome to coach” and “always a step ahead of everybody else.” He said the current college basketball star could play anywhere on the football field, including running back and quarterback.
“It’s pretty crazy that a kid from smalltown Newport is making it big time,” he added.
And that’s pretty much how it goes in Newport right now. Maybe it’s bound to happen when someone from a town of around 3,000 people finds the national spotlight. But if you walk into a local general store or auto shop, you’re almost guaranteed to find people who know him and his family. You might even find someone who has played him in a game of HORSE.
Berg, the general store owner, has offered a unique challenge to people for years: If they can beat him at the game, which tests both basketball shooting ability and creativity, he’ll give them a free tank of gas.
Flagg is one of only a couple opponents who have got the better of Berg, the store owner said.
“And I had him, too,” he said wistfully about the loss, wishing he could say now that he took the game against Flagg, then a freshman in high school with Nokomis.
It wasn’t just the game of HORSE that left Berg wishing things had gone differently. He also was “some disappointed” about Duke’s loss to Houston, and the way the game “collapsed” at the end for the Blue Devils. But he gave credit to the Cougars for their timely shooting and tough defense, and wasn’t worried about Flagg’s future.
“He’ll be just as big a hero,” Berg said. “He’ll do fine. I’m sure he’s heartbroken and all that, but his basketball skills will be just as sharp. He’ll do fine, you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”
And he left little doubt about how much Flagg’s run in the tournament meant to Newport, where he saw Flagg turn people into basketball fans and captivate the area not just with his skills, but his demeanor and politeness as well.
“It meant the world to this town,” Berg said about the experience.
Tammy Bowden wasn’t paying close attention to Duke’s game action during the tournament, but she couldn’t help but notice the excitement in town, something she had never seen before during the 25 years she has lived in Newport.
“We’re all proud of him,” she said on Monday.
Ricker, the town manager, said he went from never watching basketball to having to regularly check the score of Duke games.
“Cooper has brought notoriety and pride to this community in unbelievable proportions,” Ricker said. “We’re very proud to have this be the hometown of Cooper Flagg, and wish him the very best in the future.”
That future is expected to include the NBA, with Flagg considered the clear favorite to be the first pick in the June draft.
“I’m looking ahead to see what team he might end up with in the NBA,” said Worden, the former Nokomis teacher who was also a longtime Newport selectman. “We’ll see.”
Asked on Monday if any of the hometown pride would disappear after Duke’s Final Four loss, Newport native Matt Fraser had a quick response.
“That ain’t gonna go anywhere,” Fraser said. “Absolutely not.”
Like Flagg, Fraser grew up around basketball in Newport. He said his father and brother played men’s league basketball with Flagg’s father, Ralph. Fraser called it “pretty remarkable” to watch a kid from Newport do what Cooper Flagg is doing, and he had a message for the Duke freshman after Saturday night’s loss.
“Keep your head up, and just keep rolling,” Fraser said.
