![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/42434765_20250625_Flagg_2-1750893262.jpg\")
\t\t\tCooper Flagg poses on the red carpet prior to the NBA Draft on June 25 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. (Derek Davis\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCooper Flagg poses on the red carpet prior to the NBA Draft on June 25 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. (Derek Davis\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not a big fan of lists. I read them, of course. They\u2019re often unavoidable.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re easy. It typically doesn\u2019t take a lot of thought to regurgitate a list. Most of the time it just takes a little memory, a notepad, and a pen.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re disposable. A list is a sneeze. It\u2019s there, then it\u2019s gone. Until the next one.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re safe. Yeah, people will argue over a list. People argue over everything, but what\u2019s at stake? A fleeting opinion, that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n
Some years, we\u2019ve compiled a list of the biggest sports stories in Maine that year. It\u2019s usually less a list and more a time capsule, something to use as a touchstone to a moment in time. You might say to yourself \u201cOf course, 1993. The University of Maine men\u2019s hockey team won the national title. I met the love of my life trying to climb atop Alfond Arena in the celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n
People like lists, probably for a lot of the same reasons I\u2019m not a big fan. So, in the spirit of vox populi, here is the list of the top sports stories in Maine in 2025.<\/p>\n
Cooper Flagg.<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the list. What, did you really think there was anything else?<\/p>\n Nope. Nothing else comes close. Everything else sports-related that happened in Maine in 2025 belongs on another list. The Hearts of Pine were a huge hit<\/a> in their first season. The University of Maine men\u2019s hockey team won its first Hockey East championship<\/a> in 21 years. The high school championships<\/a> provided their usual array of fantastic finishes. <\/p>\n All interesting stories, sure, but what we saw from Flagg this year was singular. Nobody from Maine had been the first overall pick in any of the major sports leagues. That happens other places.<\/p>\n Maine is being drawn along by him, carried away to Texas. <\/p>\n It felt like the entire state of Maine was at the Barclays Center <\/a>in Brooklyn that night in June, when Flagg\u2019s name was the first one called by Adam Silver at the NBA Draft. I\u2019d bet after the Dallas metro area, Maine has more regular viewers of Mavericks game than anywhere in the nation. <\/p>\n Even before the June draft, Maine came out in force to watch Flagg and Duke take on Boston College in January. <\/a>For Jessica Greene of Island Falls, that meant making a 664-mile round trip from Aroostook County. <\/p>\n Mainers appreciate Flagg because his hard work is obvious, and it\u2019s a reflection of what we know we can be as a state, if we work at it. If a few basketball fans decide to visit us to see where Flagg was molded, then all the better. The door\u2019s open. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/40990346_20250118_CooperMania_1.jpg\")
<\/a>Adam Robson of Belfast, a junior on Belfast Area High School\u2019s basketball team, snaps a photo of Conte Stadium after arriving at the game with his family to watch Cooper Flagg play for the Duke men\u2019s basketball team against Boston College in January.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP25360035146496.jpg\")
<\/a>Cooper Flagg throws down a two-handed dunk on Christmas Day during the Mavericks\u2019 126-116 loss to the Warriors in San Francisco. (Eakin Howard\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n