Flagg has gone from sitting on a bucket for hours at a time harvesting peas to finding a place in the NBA as the No. 1 draft pick.

“Y ou kind of have to think of the Kobe [Bryant] arc, ” former Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban told a small group of reporters. “It took him some time to get it right. I don’t want to curse him by comparing him to Kobe because they’re not the same. But Kobe didn’t come in right away as a polished player. It took him two years to get it.”

For about two years, Cooper Flagg has been expected to be the top pick in the 2025 NBA draft. That will finally become a reality Wednesday, as the Dallas Mavericks are set to select the former Duke star first overall.

Flagg, drafted No. 1 by the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday, had a few suitors wanting him to represent their shoe and apparel product.

Cooper Flagg may be the star athlete of his family, but basketball has played a huge role in each of his family members' lives.

It’s a really cool feeling, really cool for me to go through and kind of have all the support of Maine behind me,” Flagg told NBC News.