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On a sunny August afternoon, I sat down with Payton Pritchard to debate the fact that the upcoming Celtics season was being extensively deemed a Hole 12 months.
“There’s just one mindset, all the time,” he informed 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 whole NBA season was a wash?
However I may 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 individuals across the NBA — media members, executives, scouts, coaches — and nearly all of them warned me I used to be in for an extended season of dropping, a major departure from my first two years on the Celtics beat.
A ten-minute dialog with Pritchard nearly 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 figuring out with the opposite Celtics children after spending many of the summer time on the Cape together 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 yr prior.
On this specific day, Pritchard hosted a 1-on-1 basketball match on the Reggie Lewis Heart in Roxbury. Afterwards, we caught up, and I started to broach the subject of the yr forward.
After I mentioned the phrase “Hole 12 months,” Pritchard’s face rapidly modified. He checked out me in essentially the most matter-of-fact manner he may, his eyes widening.
“It’s not a niche yr,” he mentioned firmly. “It’s a yr to show one thing, take a step, and present those that we’re nonetheless that workforce.”
Nonetheless that workforce? They weren’t nonetheless that workforce.
In my first yr overlaying the Celtics, they had been traditionally dominant, profitable 64 video games en path to a championship. The next yr, 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 Could. Nonetheless 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 12 months, 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 era 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 informed me. “And we’ll come out and compete, and attempt to win each sport, and put collectively an amazing 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 manner of speaking. The aggressive character, as Joe Mazzulla typically calls it, nearly oozes out of him.
That spirit had been heralded by many. After I first began overlaying the Celtics, Pritchard’s faculty coach, Dana Altman, informed me that few individuals on this world rival his aggressive fireplace.
“I actually admire him,” Altman mentioned. “I’ve been ready to do that for a very long time, and he’s one of the vital targeted, hardest staff I’ve recognized. And he’s very aggressive; he competes in apply, 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 significantly better than you count on.” And, in 1500 phrases, I attempted to justify why.
They’d play sooner, I maintained. (That ended up being utterly 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 just isn’t the primary driver of the workforce’s success this season.
Extra veteran gamers like Xavier Tillman and Chris Boucher had been due for profession years. That turned out improper: neither participant even survived the commerce deadline.
Wanting on the roster, I couldn’t fairly make the basketball case for it. However a single dialog with the Celtics’ spark plug informed me that the surface notion of the franchise’s incoming season was manner 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 acquired blown out on the street by the identical New York Knicks workforce that ended their season months earlier. And, two days after that, they acquired pounded on the boards in Detroit.
On October twenty sixth, after the 119-113 loss to the Pistons, the basketball world nearly definitively concluded what many had already speculated: the Celtics had been poised for a season of dropping.
Nonetheless, Pritchard walked off the Little Caesars Enviornment court docket alongside Mazzulla, as assured as ever.
“We mentioned to one another: ‘That is solely gonna make us stronger,’” Pritchard mentioned. “We had been moving into the suitable path. Lots of people didn’t assume that, dropping our third sport. However I remembered it was like, ‘Okay, we had been going to begin turning the nook. After which, little by little, day-after-day, we’re getting higher and higher.’”
Addressing the media after that loss to the Pistons, Pritchard sang the identical tune.
All the things was going to be simply high quality.
The Celtics needed to clear up their rebounding, and they’d.
His open pictures had 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 informed 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 mentioned 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 mentioned. “There’s no separation. We stayed collectively. And that’s sort of the way it was, by way of the ups and downs of the entire yr.”
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 night time, after the Celtics earned their fifty fifth win, Pritchard turned to Jaylen Brown.
“Nice season, man,” he mentioned. “Only a nice season.”
Brown nodded emphatically.
The Celtics had simply secured the No. 2 seed within the Jap Convention for the second straight yr. One other postseason run confronted them, their fifth as teammates.
“That’s an amazing season,” Brown mentioned.
Eight months have handed since Payton Pritchard assured me the Celtics can be nice, after he rejected the notion of the Hole 12 months on that sizzling summer time day in Roxbury.
The 2025-2026 Celtics had been nonetheless that workforce, simply as he mentioned they might be, ending with the fourth-best report 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 sophisticated.
“The those that had been returning,” Pritchard mentioned, “had one thing to show.”
For Pritchard, that’s all the time been the mindset: “I dwell in a state of making an attempt to show individuals improper.”
And, he feels that the locker room is stuffed with these sorts of gamers.
Luka Garza and Neemias Queta had been each 2021 second-round draft picks who acquired their careers began within the G-League. Each gamers had been fourth-string facilities final yr, and each have labored tirelessly to turn into key rotation gamers, with Queta now establishing himself as top-of-the-line 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 no matter circumstance. The record goes on and on.
“You’ve acquired to credit score Joe for making a tradition of that, but in addition Brad [Stevens] choosing gamers which have a chip on their shoulder, that like to play basketball,” Pritchard mentioned. “A number of us, apart from JT and JB, had 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 started his profession within the G League, equally carries that edge.
“Going undrafted and feeling such as you had been higher than a number of the guys who acquired drafted forward of you positively places slightly little bit of a chip in your shoulder, and also you simply need to go in and attempt to show your self and attempt to show that you just belong,” he mentioned. “I really feel like, naturally, when individuals write you off as a human being, or, I assume as a participant, I ought to say, naturally, you’re simply gonna have slightly further motivation.”
All yr 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 bunch of fellows that care about profitable, care in regards to the technique of that. Each apply, movie session, each shootaround, all the pieces’s vital,” Mazzulla mentioned. “They only compete each single minute. That sort of defines each man we’ve got.”
“Guys on this locker room, each time they get an opportunity to play, they need to come out and show that they’re worthy of being a rotational participant, starter, or no matter it’s,” Pritchard mentioned.
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 report after dropping an in depth sport in Minnesota. And, they had been with out Derrick White and Neemias Queta on the second night time of a back-to-back.
Pritchard took it upon himself to guide 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 after I began noticing, like, ‘Okay, the items are coming collectively slightly bit,’” Pritchard mentioned.
Payton Pritchard determined to guide 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 had been gonna lean on how I strategy all the pieces day-to-day, and being a frontrunner for these younger guys,” Pritchard mentioned. “The mentality of displaying up, sport in, sport out, and making an attempt to show your self each night time. 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 guide by instance, dealing with his personal fluctuating function with grace. He completed the yr averaging a career-best 17 factors and 5.2 assists, however his night-to-night manufacturing diverse.
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 transferring to the bench midyear: with Anfernee Simons gone, main the second unit was merely what made sense.
A trademark of the Celtics’ success this yr has been that totally different gamers stepped up each night time. Sam Hauser began 49 video games. Jordan Walsh began 25. Baylor Scheierman began 20. And, for a stretch, Hugo Gonzalez appeared like one of the vital 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 know their second may come,” Pritchard mentioned. “To by no means get too far down and annoyed, since you may get referred to as up within the subsequent sport.”
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.
“Hold working in your sport, be a superb teammate, after which, when it’s your second, all people’s gonna be completely satisfied for you,“ he informed his teammates. “And, if it’s not your second? Be completely satisfied for the opposite particular person.”
Final yr, Neemias Queta benefited from Pritchard’s steering firsthand.
“He all the time preached the view of perspective – making an attempt to see exterior of the second that you just’re dwelling in,” Queta informed 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 court docket, so that you simply need to assault your exercises with a distinct kind of mindset, whether or not it’s working in your soar shot, engaged on protection, engaged on stuff that may make it easier to instantly, or ultimately in a while down the road. It was large 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 court docket. And I believe when he informed me that and [gave me] that kind of assurance, it simply made my life a lot simpler.”
On Friday night time, Pritchard was awarded the Celtics’ Pink Auerbach Award, an honor bestowed upon the Celtics participant who finest embodies the spirit of being a Celtic “by way of distinctive efficiency each on and off the court docket.”
Mazzulla mentioned the 28-year-old had earned the choice by way of his 5 years with the group: “It’s been an honor to educate him.”
“He’s been with us for a while,” Mazzulla mentioned. “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 consistently 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 sort of taking part in.“
Pritchard seems 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 possibly not gonna converse within the locker room and listen to your voice, however you possibly can nonetheless be a frontrunner in the way in which you strategy day-after-day,” he mentioned. “You may inform a frontrunner from the primary day he walks in.”
Others have taken discover.
“Within the locker room, he’s one of the vital vocal guys,” Queta mentioned. “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 aim,” he mentioned. “A championship group is, prime to backside, [about] the work ethic all people places in. It’s the little issues. It’s the custodian on the apply facility; he reveals 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 typical of labor ethic. Clearly, the gamers work onerous, they usually’re held to that commonplace, but it surely’s all people.”
Pritchard seems to be on the disappointment of final yr as a constructing block, somewhat than a setback. And earlier than the yr started, he determined to make use of it as gas.
“Possibly that helped us for this yr. For those who dwell in that mindset of all the time going for it,” he trailed off. “If it doesn’t occur this yr, it may occur the yr after, or the yr 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 had been nonetheless that workforce.
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