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ORONO — There were weeks to go before the NBA Draft, before the night that would change his life. But Cooper Flagg’s thoughts, for a moment, were not on where he was going, but where he had been.

He and trainer Matt MacKenzie were having breakfast in Los Angeles in late May, planning their coming workouts, when the timeline got to early June. And for a minute, Flagg got wistful.

“He said ‘Hey, I think that’s the day my old classmates graduate back at Nokomis High School,” MacKenzie said. “Then he kind of thought of it for a second, and he was like ‘Man, that would be really cool if I could go to that and be with those guys as they march.’ I kind of looked at him and said ‘Well, you can be.’ He said, ‘You think so?’ ‘Of course.'”

A few hours and some phone calls to agents later, the plans were set. When Nokomis’ Class of 2025 graduated on June 6, their school’s most famous alum was there to watch them walk.

“We moved our pre-draft training back to Maine for a little over a week, and he just had a great time reminiscing with friends, being able to watch them march, and feeling connected to those kids,” MacKenzie said. “He’s learning as he goes along here, if he wants to be in Maine and he has some time to do it, he can go.”

And the people that know him well say that that three years of skyrocketing fame and fortune haven’t stamped that out. There’s no shortage of celebrities from small states and communities for whom their hometown becomes a line in their biography, or a bit of trivia, after they make the big time, move to the big cities and start their lives in the spotlight.

Flagg could fit the criteria. He’s one of the biggest sports names in the country, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, and the $62.7 million future of the Dallas Mavericks. But for the 18-year-old who tags himself as “just a kid from Maine,” the words describe a tie he has no interest in severing.

“Being home, being back in the place where you grew up, you just get grounded,” Flagg said. “It’s really refreshing, just being home and being in this environment. … It just means a lot.”

Flagg spoke alongside his twin brother, Ace, during an afternoon session of the Cooper and Ace Flagg ProCamp at the University of Maine, marking the second year they’ve run the camp for kids together. He spoke hours after he and his brother dazzled the campers in 2-on-2 games, taking the opportunity to throw down the types of dunks, alley-oops and athletic finishes for which he’s become known around the world.

They are moves he could have done at a camp anywhere in the country. But to do it in Maine, just over a half an hour from where he grew up, has a special meaning.

“Everywhere else in the country that he goes, he’s kind of a big deal. It’s ‘Wow, it’s Cooper Flagg,’ and there’s security and all of those things that come along with it,” said his mother, Kelly. “And here he gets to just be Cooper, the kid from Maine. He’s a hometown kid, and he likes getting to come back to his roots, be himself and not have to worry about the outside world.”

When Flagg comes home, he relaxes. He unwinds. He plays video games with friends, he spends time with his grandparents, he plays golf with a trio of former Nokomis teammates. He hits the old, familiar spots, the places he loved when he was 8 and still enjoys returning to when he’s 18.

“He has traditions that he likes to do,” said Matt Brown, a teacher and golf coach at Nokomis, who’s friends with the Flagg family. “Last year, when he was home, we had played Belgrade (Lakes Golf Course). On the way home, he wanted to stop at Sawyer’s ice cream place, the dairy place that’s in the middle of town in Newport. He goes, ‘I’ve been to that place every year of my life, I haven’t been there this year.'”

Being Cooper Flagg now means cameras when he’s out in public, requests for interviews, shoots for commercials, relentless hype and constant attention. It’s the world he signed up for, and he understands it and handles it.

“He doesn’t let a lot of the outside noise faze him,” MacKenzie said. “But there’s always going to be an appropriate time for a break.”

Maine provides that break, and that escape.

“(I get to) kind of leave all the outside stuff behind for a little bit,” Flagg said. “Usually when I’m here in Maine, that’s my time to kind of forget about all that stuff and all the other things, all my obligations I have. It’s usually good to come home and re-charge and refresh for a little bit.”

And when he can’t get home, he brings home to him. In June, Flagg had a select number of people he could invite to the commissioner’s brunch the morning of the draft. He gave spots to longtime friends Dawson Townsend, Alex Grant, Madden White and Ethan Cote, allowing them to share the moment with him as his journey reached new heights later that night.

“For Cooper, he enjoys having that consistency in his life,” MacKenzie said. “That extends to everything he does.”

Maine provides that consistency. It’s why Flagg’s kept that connection through everything, and why no one who knows him sees that changing.

“It’s still easy to be in my home. All of my friends treat me just like normal,” he said. “Just being in my small town, hanging out, doing very normal things is why I come back here.”