On a sunny August afternoon, I sat down with Payton Pritchard to debate the truth that the upcoming Celtics season was being broadly deemed a Hole Yr.
“There’s just one mindset, all the time,” he advised me then. “I’ve by no means been on any workforce in my life the place the mindset wasn’t to attempt to compete for the championship.”
It’s the suitable factor to say, after all.
What sort of competitor would relent to the notion that a complete NBA season was a wash?
However I might instantly inform that he wasn’t simply saying it as a result of that was the suitable factor to say. All summer time, I had chatted with folks across the NBA — media members, executives, scouts, coaches — and virtually all of them warned me I used to be in for an extended season of dropping, a big departure from my first two years on the Celtics beat.
A ten-minute dialog with Pritchard virtually single-handedly satisfied me in any other case — as ridiculous as that will sound. The then-27-year-old was again in Boston, the place he had begun understanding with the opposite Celtics kids after spending a lot of the summer time on the Cape along with his spouse, Emma. He was already attending to know the brand new guys and reuniting with the identical Celtics coaches who led the workforce to 61 wins the 12 months prior.
On this specific day, Pritchard hosted a 1-on-1 basketball event on the Reggie Lewis Heart in Roxbury. Afterwards, we caught up, and I started to broach the subject of the 12 months forward.
After I stated the phrase “Hole Yr,” Pritchard’s face rapidly modified. He checked out me in essentially the most matter-of-fact means he might, his eyes widening.
“It’s not a spot 12 months,” he stated firmly. “It’s a 12 months to show one thing, take a step, and present those who we’re nonetheless that workforce.”
Nonetheless that workforce? They weren’t nonetheless that workforce.
In my first 12 months protecting the Celtics, they have been traditionally dominant, profitable 64 video games en path to a championship. The next 12 months, they gained 61 video games.
However after an surprising elimination within the second spherical of the playoffs final Spring, the Celtics misplaced Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Vacation in salary-shedding trades, and Luke Kornet and Al Horford to free company. Franchise cornerstone Jayson Tatum was more likely to miss the season with an Achilles rupture he suffered in Might. Nevertheless you needed to slice it, the offseason served as a monetary overhaul, and this wasn’t the identical workforce coming again within the fall.
However Pritchard was a perennial winner, taking part in for a corporation that’s gained extra titles than another. He was a key a part of the 2024 championship workforce, and now, he was simply months faraway from a Sixth Man of the Yr, career-best season.
His pedigree of profitable started a lot sooner than the professionals. In faculty, he was the place to begin guard for the Oregon Geese for 4 straight years, throughout which period his workforce gained 70% of its video games (and the PAC-12). In highschool, the Oregon native gained 4 straight state championships.
Why would issues change now?
“We’ll put the items collectively,” he advised me. “And we are going to come out and compete, and attempt to win each recreation, and put collectively an excellent season – and go for a championship.”
I left that dialog satisfied, largely as a result of Pritchard, very like Jaylen Brown (whom I frolicked with in July), has a compelling, no-nonsense means of speaking. The aggressive character, as Joe Mazzulla usually calls it, virtually oozes out of him.
That spirit had been heralded by many. After I first began protecting the Celtics, Pritchard’s faculty coach, Dana Altman, advised me that few folks on this world rival his aggressive fireplace.
“I actually admire him,” Altman stated. “I’ve been in a position to do that for a very long time, and he’s one of the crucial centered, hardest staff I’ve identified. And he’s very aggressive; he competes in follow, in video games, and he hates to lose.”
Two months after Pritchard and I spoke on that sizzling summer time afternoon, I penned a column: “The Celtics are going to be a lot better than you count on.” And, in 1500 phrases, I attempted to justify why.
They’d play sooner, I maintained. (That ended up being fully false — the Celtics have held the slowest tempo in your entire NBA this season).
They’d lean on their three-point capturing effectivity, I wrote. That turned out considerably true; the Celtics have hit 36.7% of their three-pointers this season, good for the Eighth-best within the league. However Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Derrick White have all had down years from past the arc, and environment friendly three-point capturing is just not the primary driver of the workforce’s success this season.
Extra veteran gamers like Xavier Tillman and Chris Boucher have been due for profession years. That turned out fallacious: neither participant even survived the commerce deadline.
Trying on the roster, I couldn’t fairly make the basketball case for it. However a single dialog with the Celtics’ spark plug advised me that the surface notion of the franchise’s incoming season was means off.
Then, the Celtics began 0-3
Three consecutive losses felt like 15 in a metropolis so used to profitable. First, the Celtics dropped a nail-biter at dwelling to the Philadelphia 76ers. Then, they bought blown out on the street by the identical New York Knicks workforce that ended their season months earlier. And, two days after that, they bought pounded on the boards in Detroit.
On October twenty sixth, after the 119-113 loss to the Pistons, the basketball world virtually definitively concluded what many had already speculated: the Celtics have been poised for a season of dropping.
Nonetheless, Pritchard walked off the Little Caesars Area courtroom alongside Mazzulla, as assured as ever.
“We stated to one another: ‘That is solely gonna make us stronger,’” Pritchard stated. “We have been moving into the suitable route. Lots of people didn’t suppose that, dropping our third recreation. However I remembered it was like, ‘Okay, we have been going to begin turning the nook. After which, little by little, day by day, we’re getting higher and higher.’”
Addressing the media after that loss to the Pistons, Pritchard sang the identical tune.
Every part was going to be simply positive.
The Celtics needed to clear up their rebounding, and they’d.
His open photographs have been going to fall (Pritchard shot an abysmal 17.4% from three-point vary in October).
They only wanted a while.
“I knew there was gonna be some adjustment interval,” Pritchard advised me. “Lots of people in numerous roles, and folks seeing totally different matchups and totally different positions, actually. It was gonna be an adjustment at first.”
Baylor Scheierman stated the workforce’s togetherness was what stood out throughout that point.
“There was no separation within the locker room, no matter what went on, ” he stated. “There’s no separation. We stayed collectively. And that’s form of the way it was, by way of the ups and downs of the entire 12 months.”
After the 0-3 begin, the Celtics went on to win 56 of their subsequent 79 video games. Solely three groups within the league — the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, and Detroit Pistons — have been higher in that span.
How ‘aggressive character’ grew to become the secret
Within the Celtics locker room on Friday evening, after the Celtics earned their fifty fifth win, Pritchard turned to Jaylen Brown.
“Nice season, man,” he stated. “Only a nice season.”
Brown nodded emphatically.
The Celtics had simply secured the No. 2 seed within the Japanese Convention for the second straight 12 months. One other postseason run confronted them, their fifth as teammates.
“That’s an excellent season,” Brown stated.
Eight months have handed since Payton Pritchard assured me the Celtics can be nice, after he rejected the notion of the Hole Yr on that sizzling summer time day in Roxbury.
The 2025-2026 Celtics have been nonetheless that workforce, simply as he stated they’d be, ending with the fourth-best document within the league.
Final week, I sat down with Pritchard to mirror on that preliminary August dialog and his unwavering religion in a Celtics squad most had dominated out.
Was he psychic? Did he know one thing we didn’t? Was it a dialog he had with Joe Mazzulla? An low season assembly?
It seems it was by no means that difficult.
“The those who have been returning,” Pritchard stated, “had one thing to show.”
For Pritchard, that’s all the time been the mindset: “I reside in a state of attempting to show folks fallacious.”
And, he feels that the locker room is full of these sorts of gamers.
Luka Garza and Neemias Queta have been each 2021 second-round draft picks who bought their careers began within the G-League. Each gamers have been fourth-string facilities final 12 months, and each have labored tirelessly to develop into key rotation gamers, with Queta now establishing himself as among the finest younger facilities within the league.
Ron Harper Jr. went undrafted and bounced across the league on 4 two-way contracts earlier than touchdown in Boston. Jaylen Brown carries a chip on his shoulder regardless of circumstance. The record goes on and on.
“You’ve bought to credit score Joe for making a tradition of that, but additionally Brad [Stevens] choosing gamers which have a chip on their shoulder, that like to play basketball,” Pritchard stated. “A variety of us, apart from JT and JB, have been late spherical picks, and so you bought to have a chip in your shoulder to make it.”
Sam Hauser, who additionally went undrafted and commenced his profession within the G League, equally carries that edge.
“Going undrafted and feeling such as you have been higher than a number of the guys who bought drafted forward of you undoubtedly places a little bit little bit of a chip in your shoulder, and also you simply wish to go in and attempt to show your self and attempt to show that you just belong,” he stated. “I really feel like, naturally, when folks write you off as a human being, or, I assume as a participant, I ought to say, naturally, you’re simply gonna have a little bit further motivation.”
All 12 months lengthy, Joe Mazzulla has deflected reward and credited the workforce’s ‘aggressive character.’
Earlier this month, I requested him to outline what the oft-used phrase meant.
“It’s simply having a gaggle of men that care about profitable, care in regards to the technique of that. Each follow, movie session, each shootaround, every little thing’s vital,” Mazzulla stated. “They only compete each single minute. That form of defines each man we’ve got.”
“Guys on this locker room, each time they get an opportunity to play, they wish to come out and show that they’re worthy of being a rotational participant, starter, or no matter it’s,” Pritchard stated.
When did Pritchard comprehend it was all starting to click on?
He factors to a December 1st win in Cleveland as a turning level within the season. They entered the sport with a 10-9 document after dropping a detailed recreation in Minnesota. And, they have been with out Derrick White and Neemias Queta on the second evening of a back-to-back.
Pritchard took it upon himself to steer the group to a win over one of many East’s premier groups, dropping a season-high 42 factors. The Celtics, regardless of being shorthanded, pulled out the victory.
“That’s once I began noticing, like, ‘Okay, the items are coming collectively a little bit bit,’” Pritchard stated.
Payton Pritchard determined to steer by instance
Earlier than the season, Pritchard and Mazzulla mentioned how the workforce was going to strategy the challenges that lay forward.
“We talked about my mindset going into it, and the way we have been gonna lean on how I strategy every little thing day-to-day, and being a pacesetter for these younger guys,” Pritchard stated. “The mentality of exhibiting up, recreation in, recreation out, and attempting to show your self each evening. That was the factor that we talked about essentially the most – the tradition of this workforce, how we needed to be.”
Pritchard made a concerted effort to steer by instance, dealing with his personal fluctuating function with grace. He completed the 12 months averaging a career-best 17 factors and 5.2 assists, however his night-to-night manufacturing various.
He began the primary 49 video games of the season, however was moved to the bench after the commerce deadline. And, anytime he was requested, he downplayed the sacrifice that got here with shifting to the bench midyear: with Anfernee Simons gone, main the second unit was merely what made sense.
An indicator of the Celtics’ success this 12 months has been that totally different gamers stepped up each evening. Sam Hauser began 49 video games. Jordan Walsh began 25. Baylor Scheierman began 20. And, for a stretch, Hugo Gonzalez regarded like one of the crucial impactful rookies within the league.
Gamers cycled out and in of the rotation — however largely dealt with it with grace as a result of they all the time knew they’d get one other likelihood.
“It simply helps all people within the locker room to grasp their second might come,” Pritchard stated. “To by no means get too far down and annoyed, since you would possibly get referred to as up within the subsequent recreation.”
Pritchard, who has fallen out of the rotation loads of instances throughout his profession — and racked up DNPs throughout Mazzulla’s first season on the helm — grew to become a chief disseminator of that message.
“Preserve working in your recreation, be a very good teammate, after which, when it’s your second, all people’s gonna be comfortable for you,“ he advised his teammates. “And, if it’s not your second? Be comfortable for the opposite particular person.”
Final 12 months, Neemias Queta benefited from Pritchard’s steerage firsthand.
“He all the time preached the view of perspective – attempting to see exterior of the second that you just’re dwelling in,” Queta advised me. “It won’t be proper now, however [this time] is so that you can get higher and work on different stuff. You won’t be getting repetition on the courtroom, so that you simply wish to assault your exercises with a distinct sort of mindset, whether or not it’s working in your bounce shot, engaged on protection, engaged on stuff that may make it easier to instantly, or ultimately afterward down the road. It was big for me. Again in these days, I actually took that to coronary heart. He was capable of do [those things] to get himself on the courtroom. And I believe when he advised me that and [gave me] that sort of assurance, it simply made my life a lot simpler.”
On Friday evening, Pritchard was awarded the Celtics’ Purple Auerbach Award, an honor bestowed upon the Celtics participant who greatest embodies the spirit of being a Celtic “by way of distinctive efficiency each on and off the courtroom.”
Mazzulla stated the 28-year-old had earned the choice by way of his 5 years with the group: “It’s been an honor to teach him.”
“He’s been with us for a while,” Mazzulla stated. “It’s simply what he’s grown into and the place he’s been over the course of his time. You simply check out a man that was continuously having to compete with different guards and never getting a ton of time — a ninth, tenth man to return in and are available off the bench and spark us, after which [he entered] the beginning lineup, after which again off the bench, and he’s simply form of taking part in.“
Pritchard looks like he’s all the time been a pure chief. However, in his first few years in Boston, he was removed from the loudest voice within the room.
“You’re perhaps not gonna communicate within the locker room and listen to your voice, however you may nonetheless be a pacesetter in the way in which you strategy day by day,” he stated. “You’ll be able to inform a pacesetter from the primary day he walks in.”
Others have taken discover.
“Within the locker room, he’s one of the crucial vocal guys,” Queta stated. “He’s just about been capable of talk with all sorts of personalities that we’ve got — he’s only a nice teammate.”
Final week, when Pritchard mirrored on our August dialog, he emphasised how a lot of his unwavering confidence got here from merely being part of the Boston Celtics: “You keep in a championship mindset.”
“Boston lives in a state of — a championship is the one purpose,” he stated. “A championship group is, high to backside, [about] the work ethic all people places in. It’s the little issues. It’s the custodian on the follow facility; he exhibits up on time. He places in his work. The entrance workplace does the identical factor – they’re there early. The coaching employees, the load room. All people is held to a regular of labor ethic. Clearly, the gamers work arduous, they usually’re held to that commonplace, nevertheless it’s all people.”
Pritchard seems to be on the disappointment of final 12 months as a constructing block, quite than a setback. And earlier than the 12 months started, he determined to make use of it as gas.
“Possibly that helped us for this 12 months. When you reside in that mindset of all the time going for it,” he trailed off. “If it doesn’t occur this 12 months, it might occur the 12 months after, or the 12 months after that. It’s all constructing for the long run.”
The Celtics’ playoffs will start on Sunday. What their future holds stays to be seen. However one factor was sure: no matter accessible personnel, no matter how the offseason went, he was proper about one factor.
These Celtics have been nonetheless that workforce.
