Cooper Flagg’s competitive drive a reminder of youth days working on a Maine farm

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Years before signing a rookie contract with the Dallas Mavericks, netting him $13.8 million in the first year alone, Cooper Flagg had a more menial job.

He was a pea picker on the Thunder Road Farm in Corinna, Maine.

Flagg was 11 years old when he, his fraternal twin brother Ace and his older brother Hunter were hired. The pay was $1 for every pound collected.

Like everything else the boys did, it turned into a competition.

“Cooper the pea picker was very competitive,” Kelly Flagg, the boys’ mother, told The Athletic. “He wanted to make more money than his brothers. They only picked for about three hours in the morning before it got too hot. He was very aggressive.”

The first week, Cooper cleared $100. Charlie and Barb Peavey, who own Thunder Road Farm, weren’t sure if they could afford him.

“A lot of kids come on the farm and think it’s going to be easy. They fool around and talk; Cooper never did that,” said Barb Peavey, whose son, Kellen, played basketball with the Flagg brothers when they were younger. “Cooper was very focused on what he was doing. … He put his nose to the grindstone. He picked and worked.”

Besides peas, the Peaveys grew strawberries, red potatoes, cucumbers, corn and pumpkins. Every summer, they hired between 15 and 20 youngsters from central Maine as crop pickers. Harvesting peas required Flagg to sit on a five-gallon bucket during his morning shift.

“It helps with your work ethic,” Cooper Flagg said. “It helps you teach early about having a job. It was always fun to make a little money and hang out with your friends.”

Cooper Flagg (right) and his twin brother Ace used to work on a farm picking peas in Maine. (Bryan Bedder / Getty Images for Dave & Busters)

Now 18, Flagg is one of the most well-rounded prospects to enter the NBA in recent memory. The Mavericks landed a 6-foot-8 forward who can pass, shoot, dribble and defend. According to one catch-all metric, box plus/minus, Flagg, while at Duke, had the most impactful freshman season of any NCAA men’s basketball player in the past 15 years aside from Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis.

As much as Flagg’s numbers popped, his intangibles excited the Mavericks more than anything. Flagg badly wants to win — even at something as trivial as pea picking.

“When people talk about him, they don’t talk about basketball with him,” Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison said. “They talk about all the intangibles. When you have a player who’s that good and they talk about the intangibles, that’s a guy who’s going to add to your culture.”

Flagg did his first year of high school in Maine and then attended Montverde Academy, a prep school and basketball powerhouse in Florida, for two years. In August 2023, he reclassified so he could play college ball a year early. When he made that decision, he was following one of the Flagg family mantras: If you’re the best player in the gym, find a new gym.

Most nights, Flagg looked like the best player in the gym, even when he was the youngest player on the floor. On Jan. 11, three weeks after his 18th birthday, Flagg had 42 points, seven assists and six rebounds in Duke’s 86-78 win against Notre Dame. Throughout the 2024-25 season, the Blue Devils were one of the best teams in college basketball. They went 19-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference play and ultimately advanced to the NCAA Final Four.

Cooper Flagg had a monster game in January against Notre Dame. (Rob Kinnan / Imagn Images)

Flagg has become a teenage millionaire; despite that status, he remains grounded. The week before the NBA Draft, he traveled to Dallas for a two-day visit. He made the trip alone. He didn’t need handlers or an entourage accompanying him. Flagg went through an on-court workout and then got two different steak dinners: one with members of the Mavericks’ front office and another with his future teammates.

“We’re very proud of him. We’re proud of the family,” Peavey said. “We’re proud that he’s stayed so humble and he’s just kept those Maine roots alive.”

In a June 27 news conference with Dallas local media, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd talked about deploying Flagg at lead guard and on the wing. Kidd sounded impressed with the way Flagg was handling the hoopla.

“Just sitting here listening to him, isn’t it incredible?” Kidd said. “We are talking about an 18-year-old who has all the right answers.”

Flagg will suit up for the Mavericks this week during NBA Summer League. Their first game is Thursday against the Los Angeles Lakers.

This fall, Flagg will make his NBA debut. Around that same time, the Peaveys plan on opening their Thunder Road Farm corn maze to the public for the 21st consecutive year.

This year’s maze will be Cooper Flagg-themed. An aerial view will show the Newport, Maine, native dunking a basketball. Flagg’s nickname, “The Maine Event,” will be cut into the crops, as well.

Flagg has gone from pea picking to finding a place in the NBA as the No. 1 draft pick. His mother sees the same competitive person now as she did back then.

“I think it’s exactly who he is as a person,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s pea picking or anything else. He can turn it into a competition.”

(Top photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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