The crowd was loud, the number of jerseys with his name on the back were plentiful, and Cooper Flagg was back in New England for his first game at TD Garden as an NBA player Friday night.

Flagg, whom the Mavericks selected with the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft, grew up in Maine rooting for the Celtics. Boston was as close to a hometown team as he could get back then.

During his postgame press conference, Flagg was asked what the crowd was like and whether or not he’d like to experience it from the other side as a Celtic one day.

“Nah, I love being a Maverick,” Flagg said. “That’s home and I don’t want anything else. It was incredible to be able to play here, obviously this is the place where I came as a kid and got to watch, so I think it’s going to be incredibly fun for the rest of my career for me to be able to come here and playin front of this crowd.”

Flagg, who is in the first year of his rookie deal, likely won’t hit free agency until 2030. Bringing him to Boston before then would probably have to involve a trade. He is under contract for next season, and the Mavericks have a club option for 2028 and 2029.

With Flagg averaging 20.3 points and 6.5 rebounds as a rookie with room for his game to grow, hanging onto him as long as possible seems like the logical move for Dallas unless something unexpected happens.

Despite losing to the Celtics by 20 points during Jayson Tatum’s return, Flagg seemed to enjoy the experience of playing in Boston.

“I had a lot of people come up from back home. Having that experience was really cool,” Flagg said. “The energy was incredible tonight, obviously, with Jayson coming back. The energy was great, it’s an incredible environment and an incredible place to play.”

His time in Texas is just beginning, and this isn’t the Mavericks’ last trip to TD Garden. But, there’s nothing like the first one, and this was a moment that Flagg wanted to savor.

“It meant a lot. I tried to take a moment to take a deep breath and take it all in,” Flagg said. “It’s a dream come true just being out there on that court competing and playing at a high level. It’s really special.”

Khari A. Thompson

Sports Reporter

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s catch of lobsters declined for the fourth straight year, state fishing regulators said Friday, as the industry continued to grapple with soaring business costs, inflation and a changing ocean.

The haul of lobsters, Maine’s best known export and a key piece of the state’s identity and culture, has declined every year since 2021, and some scientists have cited as a reason warming oceans that spur migration to Canadian waters.

The sector brought in 78.8 million pounds (35.7 million kilograms) of lobsters in 2025, down from more than 110 million pounds (49.9 million kilograms) in 2021, regulators said. It was the lowest total since 2008.

Inflation hit the industry hard last year, and there were more than 21,000 fewer fishing trips than in 2024, according to Carl Wilson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Market uncertainty due to tariffs and a late start to the busy portion of the fishing season also played roles, he said.

“This combination of factors likely contributed to the decline from 2024 to 2025 in the lobster harvest of more than eight million pounds and a decrease in the overall value of more than $75 million,” Wilson said in a statement.

The vast majority of the country’s lobsters are caught in waters off Maine, though they are also trapped elsewhere in New England.

The overall catch, among the most lucrative in the U.S., is frequently worth more than $500 million at the docks each year. Last year it was more than $461 million.

The southern New England lobster fishery has been declared depleted by regulators for years. That decline happened as waters warmed off Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts, and scientists have warned that the trend could be repeating off Maine. The crustaceans are sensitive to changes in temperature, particularly when young but also throughout their lives.

Last year the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said lobster populations have shown “rapid decline in abundance in recent years” in key areas and declared the species to be experiencing overfishing. Environmental groups have called for tighter regulation of the fishery.

Some members of the industry have pushed back on that assessment and say fishermen are already restricted by regulations meant to conserve the lobsters and save endangered whales.

Last year’s catch was still relatively high compared with historic numbers, up from typically 50 million to 70 million pounds (about 23 million to 32 million kilograms) in the 2000s and even less in the decade before that.

The industry saw a boom in the 2010s, when hauls were over 100 million pounds (45 million kilograms) per year, topping out at more than 132 million pounds (60 million kilograms) in 2016.

While prices remained high for both consumers and dealers, the high cost of necessities such as fuel and gear made for “not a very profitable season,” said John Drouin, who fishes out of Cutler.

But it was not all bad news, as lobsters were trapped more consistently than the prior year, said Steve Train, who is based out of Long Island.

“Hauling was more consistent, with less peaks and valleys, and the price was higher in the summer months,” Train said. “But I think I landed a little less.”

Lobsters remain readily available in restaurants and seafood markets, though prices have been high. They typically sold for $3 to $5 per pound at the dock in the 2010s and have been more than $6 per pound in some recent years. Last year the price at the dock was $5.85 per pound.

Looking up at the night sky in northern and rural Maine, it is a sight to behold, almost unique in today’s lit-up world. The Rangeley region is one of the last areas in the Northeast largely untouched by light pollution.

It is also a draw for many tourists and stargazers who come to the region for the clear view of the night sky.

A new group called Friends of the Western Maine Dark Sky hopes that by limiting the amount of light pollution, those views will be preserved for generations to come.

The group gathered at the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust on March 3 to talk about ways to educate the community on the importance of dark skies to the region.

One of their primary efforts is to try to designate Rangeley as an official Dark Sky community.

The designation will require a few steps. First, an application will be submitted to DarkSky International expressing an interest. Then, the town of Rangeley will need to adopt a new lighting ordinance at the June town meeting.

A new state law taking effect in October will require publicly funded outdoor lighting across the state to be dimmed at night to protect wildlife and dark skies. This includes using warm, yellow-toned bulbs, dimming or turning off nonessential lights and shielding lights so they don’t shine upward into the sky.

The town ordinance would create guidelines similar to the state laws on the kinds of lights used in town, as well as restrict some signs, such as LED message boards. Existing boards would be allowed to remain in place.

“The fact that the existing signage is grandfathered in perhaps bodes well for getting an approval of the town meeting,” said Linda Dexter, Dark Sky community certification coordinator at the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, who is leading the effort. “It’s going to impact businesses in the town … right out of the gate, folks will tend to not vote for it.”

Even if an ordinance passes, change would likely be slow. Most of the group’s efforts will be on community education, such as informing seasonal residents to turn off the lights at their camps while they are gone for the winter. Also, the application may not be approved for up to six months after it is submitted, Dexter said.