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<\/p>\nThe Boston Celtics\u2019 trade for Kevin Garnett in the summer of 2007 had a seismic impact. Overnight, the Celtics were transformed from one of the Eastern Conference\u2019s worst teams into a contender.<\/p>\n
As the Celtics marched to 66 regular-season wins in Garnett\u2019s first season in Beantown \u2014 a 42-win improvement from the previous season \u2014 Matt MacKenzie was one of the many fans in New England locked in on their journey. Then a sophomore on the Husson University men\u2019s basketball team in Bangor, Maine, MacKenzie often had friends over to watch games in his basement. Twice that season, MacKenzie ripped off the 3 1\/2-hour drive south on Interstate 95 to Boston to catch games in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing that trade happen with K.G. coming to the Celtics, that was everything,\u201d MacKenzie said. \u201cHe changed the entire culture of the Celtics organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
After college, MacKenzie wasn\u2019t ready to be done with basketball. He started working with children as a skills trainer in his home state of Maine. One of his clients was Cooper Flagg, whose ascent in the basketball world over the past five-plus years has been stratospheric. Flagg has gone from being a top-rated high school prospect to one of the brightest young stars in the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks rookie has already set the league scoring record for a teenager twice and flashed so much promise on both ends of the floor that it\u2019s easy to envision First Team All-NBA appearances in his future.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Dallas will play in Boston for the only time this season. It has the potential to be an electric atmosphere. The Mavericks-Celtics matchup in T.D. Garden will effectively serve as a homecoming game for Flagg, whose inner circle grew up bleeding Celtics green before the Mavericks chose Flagg with the No. 1 pick in June and altered their allegiances.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody I\u2019ve talked to has had this date circled since the schedule released,\u201d said MacKenzie, as Flagg returned to the floor Thursday against the Orlando Magic after missing the previous eight games with a left foot sprain. \u201cI would not be surprised if 75 percent of T.D. Garden or more reside in Maine. I know several people have boxes and suites reserved. I know a ton of people who scraped together their money just to get a seat in the balcony.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n Cooper Flagg has been a force on the court for years. He was able to showcase his abilities playing with Maine United in 2023 on the Nike EYBL circuit. (Stu Boyd II \/ The Commercial Appeal via Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
The Maine United AAU basketball team that Andy Bedard coached had an old-school ethos. He taught his players to pass the ball, rebound, play defense and set solid screens.<\/p>\n
Loyalty also mattered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no way (Kevin) McHale was going to go to the Lakers,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cThere was no way (Larry) Bird was going to play with Magic (Johnson). It was just like this is your group. You\u2019re tough. You play together. And you compete at all costs. That was how we played.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard, who played collegiately at Boston College and the University of Maine, grew up on the 1980s Celtics, who made five trips to the NBA Finals and won three championships in a seven-year span. Bedard\u2019s lasting memories from that era of Celtics basketball are of Bird going airborne to try and wrangle loose balls<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMy head goes to Bird laying out on the floor,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cDiving on the floor into the stands. The all-out laying it on the line, where you sacrifice everything for the possession.\u201d<\/p>\n Bedard\u2019s son, Kaden, played on Maine United with the Flagg brothers, twins Cooper and Ace. Bedard knew the Flagg boys\u2019 mother, Kelly, from college. She was an accomplished four-year player at the University of Maine who, as a senior, helped the Black Bears upset Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 1999.<\/p>\n Kelly Flagg was also a massive Celtics fan. When her boys were in grade school, she bought them a DVD of games from the Celtics\u2019 1985-86 championship run. The boys watched it while mom wheeled the family minivan through Maine on the way to practices or games.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if you grew up and you were an Allen Iverson fan, you were probably more of a one-on-one type player,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cBut if you watched that team, the ball moved. You set real screens. You slipped screens. You got the ball to the mismatch. The way they played, I think it embodies Cooper exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n
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