Cooper Flagg excelled as a freshman at Duke and would appear to be a good fit for the Dallas Mavericks, who won the NBA Draft lottery on Monday. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press

It has to be weird, seeing your future livelihood played out live on international television. That’s what happened to Newport’s Cooper Flagg on Monday night, as the NBA unveiled the winner of its annual draft lottery.

It’s the Dallas Mavericks. Maine’s Flagg is heading to Texas. There aren’t any direct flights from Portland or Bangor to Dallas, but don’t fret, fans. It’s still an easy place to get to. Unless the Mavericks do something completely goofy or unexpected and either trade the pick or select somebody else. But for now let’s just say it’s the Dallas Mavericks.

“NBA DRAFT LOTTERY ORDER REVEALED NEXT” was on the crawl on the bottom of the screen, with Flagg in the lower right corner of the screen, during the commercial break before the top four picks were revealed. Because this tension has to be ratcheted up with a few minutes of expensive ads, and a cutaway to Flagg sitting next to Kon Knueppel, his Duke teammate and another potential high pick in the NBA draft next month. Flagg bit his lip and maybe started to envision himself in the jersey of one of the four teams still in the mix: the Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and Charlotte Hornets.

Dallas had a slim 1.8% chance to win the lottery, and became the team with the fourth-lowest odds of all time to win the NBA draft jackpot.

Sitting down with the ESPN crew after his fate was revealed, Flagg didn’t say much. He is working on all facets of his game. He’s excited for the future.

Any discussion about the top prospect in the upcoming draft ended months ago. Flagg made his case game after game for Duke, leading the Blue Devils to the Final Four. He was the ACC Player of the Year, a first-team All-American and winner of the John Wooden Award as the college game’s best player.

“He’s the most complete player in this draft,” analyst Jay Bilas said of Flagg at the start of ESPN’s coverage, saying what’s been common knowledge for a while.

As far as places to start his career, Flagg could have done a lot worse than Dallas. The Mavericks played in the NBA Finals last season, losing to the Celtics in five games. Dallas isn’t a team in perpetual rebuild mode like the Washington Wizards or New Orleans Pelicans. Nor is it a team more removed from its glory days with every season, like the Utah Jazz. The Charlotte Hornets would have been a nice fit, if only for the team’s Maine ties in the front office (co-owner Gabe Plotkin was raised in Portland and Steve Clifford, a former Hornets coach and UMaine-Farmington grad, still works in an advisory capacity with the team).

Duke’s Kon Knueppel, left, and Cooper Flagg, right, smile during the NBA draft lottery on Monday in Chicago. Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

The arrival of Flagg should help Dallas fans get over the sting of the February trade of star Luca Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. Even with that trade that sucked the life out of their season, the Mavericks went 39-43, reaching the Western Conference play-in tournament. Assuming Kyrie Irving returns from his injury, the addition of Flagg could be what Dallas needs to jump back into Western contention.

Utah, Charlotte, Washington and Philadelphia all tanked, putting in the minimal effort to increase their chances of getting Flagg. They did everything but run the plays the Washington Generals use to feebly try against the Harlem Globetrotters. Maybe tanking isn’t the way to go. Since the NBA instituted new odds for winning the draft lottery in 2019, the team with the worst record in the league has not won the top pick.

All Dallas had to do was make a hugely unpopular trade. Score one for lottery efficiency.

A minor downside for Maine fans in all of this: Dallas only makes one trip to Boston each season to play the Celtics. An Eastern Conference team would have given fans from back home more opportunities for a short trip to see Flagg play. That’s the smallest of quibbles. Maybe some Mainers who have never considered a Texas vacation now will.

Can you believe it was just three years ago that Flagg and his twin brother and soon-to-be Maine Black Bear Ace were leading Nokomis to a state championship? Will the Mavericks’ team store see an uptick in shipments to Maine?

That one season at Duke was fun. Now we know where Flagg is likely going to start his NBA career. Everything’s bigger in Texas, especially the anticipation.

Now it gets really fun.