Next Up: Celtics rookies Hugo Gonzalez, Amari Williams & Max Shulga make their first visit to Boston

Next Up: Celtics rookies Hugo Gonzalez, Amari Williams & Max Shulga make their first visit to Boston

Being drafted by by Boston was a really good good news for me and I’m pretty pretty happy for it. Just knowing I achieved something that not many people from England are able to do. You know, you always dream about getting into NBA, but when it actually happens, it’s a different type of feeling. You can’t even describe. They’ll see that I’m doing 100% of the time on the court. It’s a great opportunity and and responsibility. The message here with those guys is real simple. Give it your very all. If other things get in the way of that, then it’s a tough league. Brad, I know there’s still a lot of uncertainties this offseason around what this team will look like next year. We’ve heard the term retooling, rebuilding, all those kind of floating around in the media. How would you describe where you guys are at and what are some things you can say are certain or likely about next year’s roster? Well, I think we’re certain to have some really good players on our roster. I mean, even you look at our roster right now today, we’re going to we’ve got a lot of really good basketball players that have done a lot of good things in this league and several of them have done a lot of great things here. We’ll see how it all pans out, what it all looks like, but like I expect us to go out and compete with all we’ve got to be the very best we can and that will always be the case. And you know, the biggest thing for us is just continue to build and grow. This is always one of my favorite nights of the year because you get to see the work of these young men pay off. Let’s go Celtics, baby. You know it. Number one. Number one. People don’t realize, right? This is a dream come true when you think about the journey, the long van rides when you 15 deep, right? The tournaments that you have to play in every single weekend to work and the sacrifice. Eat, sleep, and breathe basketball just to get to this point. Can you hear it over there? Can you turn it up a little bit? Which of the players drafted tonight will be the next key of a championship team? These draft nights, these days are long. We’re talking about trades and picking people all day and then we go through a pretty hectic draft moment over a few hours. Most of the time we’re looking to get the guys that we think will be good contributing NBA players. You know, particularly later in the draft, most people aren’t that. And so, um, we’re looking for the guys who are. Mostly we look for the best players we can get. Um, you know, with an eye towards the fact that you got to have an opportunity for them to contribute at least a little bit to know if they’re going to be successful or not. But for the most part, it’s go get the the best guys. Hi, Hi. Uh, the Boston Celtics will select, Kevin McCo, Paul Pierce, Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum, Ugo Gonzalez from Madrid, and last play for Real Madrid. Real Madrid. Hey, you go Brad Stevens. Congratulations, Sounds like congratulations in a lot of ways tonight, huh? Man, that was that was actually just won the Spanish League uh 6 hours ago and then I was in the whole draft night for 3 hours and in Valencia and out there with my family and everything and when I got the call and all that stuff, it was was pretty exciting actually. We’ve been watching Hugo for a long time. He’s obviously been on everybody’s radar, I think, for a long time and then, you know, followed his year with a a great Real Madrid organization and team and just big fan of how he plays. It’s always exciting to think about the future possibilities and the draft night’s like the perfect example of that. It’s the embodiment of that. You get these guys at the start of their careers and they’re they’re so excited to get the phone calls and come in and see everyone and meet everyone and be a part of this really really special thing we have here. Good evening and welcome to the second round of the 2025 NBA draft presented by State Farm. All the time we’re looking for the ability to get more assets we can use in the future and still get a bunch of good players and we we felt pretty confident that there’d be guys we’d like lower down in the draft. So, uh that’s what we did. What was going through your mind when you got the call? Um I’m not quite sure. I just knew that I was kind of happy, kind of overwhelmed, just knowing that I achieved something that not many people from England are able to do. So, I feel like just that kind of rushing through my mind and happiness was was something I felt for sure. With the 57th pick in the 2025 NBA draft, the Orlando Magic select Max Schulga from Kev, Ukraine, and Virginia Commonwealth University. I left your agent and Dave and everybody working really happy really happy you joined us. It was a crazy it was a surreal moment. You know, you always kind of think about it and dream about like getting drafted but you know when it actually happens like it’s a whole it’s a different type of feeling you can’t even describe for real. So was super excited and get getting ready to to move over here and just get started. How’s it going? You going I mean, we’re pretty pretty excited. I mean, um especially being drafted, really good franchise, really good situation. Being drafted by by Boston was a really good good new year for me. I’m pretty pretty happy for it. You know, it’s my first first day as a Celtic, first day in Boston. So, I’m super excited to get to work and the Boston Celsius. Obviously, I know the city is crazy over the basketball team, so I Yeah, I can’t wait for for the season and everything to to get going. That’s awesome. Glad you’re here. It’s a team with a lot of history, historical winning. So, just being a part of that and just knowing that I was moving to a new city was was something I was looking forward to. I went to Oklahoma. We have a tradition of a couple days after the draft bringing our newest Celtics into the community when they get here to Boston. And the idea is just to um introduce being the Celtics synonymously with making a positive impact on people. And uh we go into Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Come on in. The kids are beyond excited to meet you guys. So, um, bring the energy cuz they’re definitely going to bring it. your side. Yeah. Just a guy. You don’t you don’t have to use your your left. 1 2 3 4 equipment room where it goes down. So I need to quickly size you guys just real quick for summer league stuff. All right, cool. That one feel okay or is it too big? Yeah, it’s just tight around this part. Too tight. You want to try this one on? It’s a little bit bigger. Too small or too big. It’s not a big deal. That’s 48. Yeah, that’s I’ll be here the next couple days. So, stuff doesn’t fit. Just let me know. We’ll get it changed out. Sure. Hot tub therapy pool. And then you got the sauna right here. And this is right here. What’s up, fellas? How y’all doing? Nice to meet you. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. How y’all doing? Y’all doing all right. Nice to meet you. Yes, sir. Nice to meet you. What’s up, bro? Nice to meet you. What’s up, bro? Nice to meet you. Congratulations, Nice to meet you. Welcome to Boston where we don’t have many numbers. I know everything’s retired. They’re all up. They’re all up there over there. What do we have, Mari? Where are you? 77. Yeah. Hold each way, one time. Face those guys. I mean, it feels crazy. Like we was saying, it feels a lot different than a college judgment. So, it’s great. Amazing. I mean, it’s so beautiful right now. Feeling really blessed about it. Really, really excited for getting fitted on me for the game. So, I’m really excited. A lot of there. pen says, “Welcome to the Celtics. Give it to your mom.” She ought to really like it. She She likes the pen. Yeah. All right. I think we’re all set. Congratulations. Yeah. That’s a real moment. That’s a real cool thing. Yeah. Congrats. Thanks, man. You guys enjoy the rest of your day. Try to enjoy Boston a little bit for sure. We’ll look forward to seeing you tomorrow. All right. Great. It’s been good practices. Definitely a lot of competitiveness and it’s been tough just kind of learning new concepts about how the soldiers play and you know what they expect from me. So it’s been it’s been challenging in that sense. You know coaches are throwing throwing a lot at us. nothing we didn’t know before, but it’s just like different names and and and call outs and stuff like that, different terminology. Mostly it’s it’s defense defense oriented. So, yeah, I would say they’ve been really like intense and and competitive. I mean, it was hard. It was hard. Um, you know, in Europe, I think that compared here, it’s a really different game. And I think that you there’s no good or wrong, but you just got to get used to it and trying to catch up the idea for for performing as as good as I can as soon as possible. I’m really excited to get a chance to be the head coach for the Celtic summer league team. It’s a very competitive, hard to plan group and each one of these guys has great skill sets that they’re they’re bringing from a different environment and we’re looking to have those skills shine at summer league, but also help uh refine some things that we’re going to ask them to do at the NBA level. You know, finally putting this jersey on. I feel like that’s something that everyone kind of looks forward to as soon as they hit um something about somebody. I’ve been 10 years with the same club. So, making the debut and everything for the Celtics and summer league, playing with another team, it’s uh it’s going to be new. It’s going to be exciting, of course, and it’s something that really excites me a lot. It’s kind of your first like taste of of the league, you know, of the NBA. I’m excited for for the experience. Uh just yeah looking to learn a lot from from the games and uh just get in the groove and just get in the rhythm of like NBA style basketball. When you’re young, you’re trying to prove yourself. You’re trying to make it. You’re trying to get to the point where you can hopefully be good enough where then you can maximize each and every opportunity. But right now it’s in some ways it’s survival. In some ways it’s proving yourself. Um, and then you know hopefully every day you’re bringing the right mentality from a a team perspective, right? I have no doubt that those three guys will do that. Then again, it’s about how do you handle the ups and downs of every day? Can you stay even? Can you stay focused? The Miami Heat win their first game of summer 100 to 96. For me, I can see the growth week to week now. And so I think as a fan and the way that I’ve always looked at young players when I’m a fan of, you know, college teams or professional teams in other sports is can you see the growth? Can you see the Oh, they’re a bit stronger. They’re making the right play a bit more. Oh, they’re a little bit more confident. There’s a different look about them now. We look forward to, you know, watching all of our young guys, not just our rookies, grow. And we done. Four on one, baby. Four. Bring it in. Bring it in. Celtics on three. 1 2 3. Come on now. Come on now. Me and Amari kind of went through the same pre-draft like process. We had a lot of workout. So, I kind of knew him from from that. Ugo obviously, you know, he played in in Real Madrid. I played in Spain, too. So, there’s a lot of similarities there. So, yeah, just kind of bonding over that. And just now we’re we’re all in the same class as rookies. So, we’re going to go through similar experiences. So, the bond is going to grow grow stronger as the season goes along. We were the three guys that were drafted this year and that’s that’s going to last for the for the whole life basically. We’re going to remember each other forever. I feel like we all kind of feel the same way about certain things and you know they’re they’re great guys and it’s going to be fun to be around them this season. The message here with those guys is real simple. Get in the gym, get a routine, get to work, stack good days, and give it your very all, you know, for the team, right? If you do that, good things tend to happen. If other things get in the way of that, then it’s a tough league.

Next Up takes you behind the scenes and beneath the banners as the 2025 rookie class of the Boston Celtics makes their debut 👀

Keep up all season long with Hugo Gonzalez, Amari Williams & Max Shulga as they learn why it’s #differenthere in their quests for NBA stardom.

Bringing experience from Hugo’s professional play at Real Madrid, to Amari and Max’s college years at Kentucky and VCU, these three draftees spend episode one visiting Boston for their first time as Celtics.

00:35 NBA Draft Night 🤩
3:50 Draft Night Round 2️⃣
5:25 First day in Boston ☘️
8:20 Meeting Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown & Neemias Queta 🤝🏾
11:00 Summer League ☀️

Hugo Gonzalez
Guard
Round 1, Pick 28
6’6″ (1.98m)
200lb (91kg)
Spain, Real Madrid

Amari Williams
Forward-Center
Round 2, Pick 46
6’11” (2.11m)
250lb (113kg)
United Kingdom, Kentucky

Max Shulga
Guard
Round 2, Pick 57
6’5″ (1.96m)
210lb (95kg)
Ukraine, Virginia Commonwealth
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