Top high school recruit who grew up a Boston Celtics fan has most NIL earnings potential

Cooper Flagg, who grew up a Boston Celtics fan in the New England area during his humble beginnings in Maine, was deemed by Postgame CEO Bill Jula as the high school star (across any sport) with the most NIL potential.

"I would (say) Cooper Flagg, the basketball player at Montverde," Jula said when I asked him which high school star he sees as having the highest NIL earnings potential. "I kinda put him up there as somebody that's got some huge potential."

Flagg's potential, though, as Jula explains, has somewhat of a short shelf life.

"Being basketball, he's gonna probably be a one and done," Jula prefaced before saying, "So that's gonna be a short lived thing."

Cooper Flagg comes from Boston Celtics-loving family

Flagg is a long shot to land with the Cs considering his likely lottery pick status, but whenever he becomes a free agent in the future, Boston fans should feel confident in him picking their squad since he comes from a Celtics-loving family.

“It’s just our culture,” Kelly Flagg, Cooper's mother, told NESN on January 12. “I love it. My husband loves it. We always have it on. We’re huge Celtics fans. We used to watch film on the Celtics with the older guys – (Larry) Bird, (Kevin) McHale, (Robert) Parish, (Danny) Ainge – who was my guy. We had that on. We bought the kids the 1985-86 Celtics DVD set. That was Cooper’s Christmas present when he was eight. When we traveled to AAU events down here in Massachusetts, it would play in our van.”

Flagg has a key member of the Celtics organization on his side already, with Jayson Tatum having already reached out to him.

“He reached out to me during the recruiting process,” Flagg said of Tatum. “Obviously, I was at his camp over the summer. Having that relationship and him being a player I model my game after and watched for a long time is really inspiring. Someone that I just like to watch and take a lot of things from. He’s a really special player.”

Flagg will begin his NCAA career with Duke in the fall barring a last-second recruiting flip.