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Andrew Gaze: This is in the early 90s when the Celtics are flying and stuff. And Dave Gavitt reached out to my dad and said, "Listen, we'd love to have Andrew at the Celtics sort of thing." And at the time, my dad was mentioning to me, you know, they're keen and I'm like, listen, they're fooling themselves. This is the Celtics. This is Larry Bird. I mean, I don't belong. They stayed with it and said, listen, just if you come to training camp, there was not a guarantee, but it was like, you come to camp with your skill sets… And I thought, no, I'm wasting my time. And all this already been through it with Seattle and I sometimes I think of well, what could have happened? What might have happened?
But he fractured his right ring finger in the Celtics’ win over the Mavericks on March 6, the same night Jayson Tatum made his comeback. Right when the C’s looked like they were going to be whole, they had another setback. Vucevic’s injury required him to undergo surgery, and his initial timeframe to return was about three-to-four weeks. “The good thing is I can still do some stuff on the court,” Vucevic said, via the Boston Globe. “That will help me for when I come back (to be in) shape, and hopefully I get a couple games before the playoffs, get back in rhythm with the guys that week between regular season and playoffs, everything going as smoothly as possible.”
The Celtics will hope Vucevic is good to go to have a runway to finish off the season. Having as many matchup possibilities goes a long way with the C’s looking like a real East contender. The timing was unfortunate, but it sounds like Vucevic could return to the lineup in the near future. “So far I haven’t had much pain or anything; everything has been going well,” he said. “The swelling is coming down and been working the range of motion. So hopefully the X-ray is clean at three weeks and I can start doing some stuff and just getting back to being comfortable and building strength in the hand.”
While hailed for its boldness and potential at the time, not only did it not work out as planned, it diminished the team's assets as the pressure built to win with Antetokounmpo in his prime. To add insult to injury, Holiday ended up winning a title with the Bucks' Eastern Conference rival, the Boston Celtics, the next season. Subsequently, sources told ESPN that Antetokounmpo confided to Holiday how much he and the Bucks missed Holiday's defense and leadership.
“Man, just a sea of blue, a sea of orange. Every game we play, it’s a sea of the other team. And I saw it here when I was on the Celtics. But being here, it’s like, I’ve got nothing but respect for the real fans, the real Brooklyn fans. Shoutout to them, because I know it’s tough being outnumbered every single game. But I really feel like what we have here isn’t bulls–t. We have pieces here. I’ve seen it. That’s what this ‘rivalry’ meant to me.” Yes, Minott really used “air quotes” with his hands.
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kixstats.com: Jayson Tatum wearing his Jordan Tatum 4 against Memphis Grizzlies! ??
Jayson Tatum wearing his Jordan Tatum 4 against Memphis Grizzlies! 🍀 pic.twitter.com/QDOofGP2Er
— kixstats.com (@KixstatsCom) March 21, 2026
Scott Agness: Pacers’ final scheduled national TV appearance of the season has been dropped. NBC/Peacock will now air Hornets at Celtics on April 7 instead of Timberwolves-Pacers (which will now tip at 7 ET)
“Every summer, I dedicate myself, and even during the season, to improving myself, especially in the seasons where I didn't play as much,” Garza said. “That's my main focus: getting better. I think, especially in the NBA, you've got to be able to adapt and change your game or mold it to find a way to have an impact on great teams. “So for me, that impact is a little different than it was in college. Not playing as much back to the basket, not having the ball in my hands every possession like I did. But I think I've found ways to be extremely effective through screening, through offensive rebounding, and through scoring when the ball is in my hands in different moments. Picking and popping, shooting, stretching the floor. Adding the slow step, other stuff into my game has really helped me. And so, yeah, I definitely developed, and I'm a lot better than I was back then.”
Garza credits Boston’s coaching staff for getting the most out of the guys. It’s easy to look at him, Neemias Queta, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, and Jordan Walsh as prime examples of what it takes to stay ready so they don’t have to get ready. “We do have a lot of great coaches who understand the game at a high level and push us in the right ways and kinda put you in a good spot,” Garza said. “I think that's helped. They put us out there. “But at the end of the day, all of us are just guys who've worked hard our entire careers and wanted the chance to show it, but haven't necessarily had the opportunity to. And so, when that time comes, luck, opportunity, timing, that's a recipe for success.”
But, the behind the scenes of that process may surprise people. In addition to the time Brown spent simply getting to know his teammates, this year, he also opted to learn and memorize their Chinese and Western zodiac signs, and numerology. For those unfamiliar, zodiac signs are personality traits based on birth timing. Chinese zodiac signs are based on birth year, and are represented by an animal that indicates one’s personality, while Western zodiac signs are based on birth date, on the position of the sun at the time of one’s birth. After the Celtics 120-99 win over the Golden State Warriors, when asked about his approach to leadership this season, Brown rattled off each of his teammates’ zodiac signs. “Neemi, he’s Year of the Rabbit,” he said. “So, his communication is different from D-White, who is Year of the Dog. So, his communication style is different. Hugo is also a Dog. Payton is a Tiger. JT is a Tiger. Ron is a Dragon. Joe’s a Dragon. Nikola, he’s new to our team — he’s Year of the Horse. It’s Year of the Horse right now.”
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So, after he learned each teammate’s sign, Brown took it into account when figuring out how to best communicate with them. “I started utilizing that when I speak to each and every guy,” Brown said. “I didn’t know if it would work before the season started, but that stuff definitely works.” In addition to Chinese zodiac signs, Brown learned his teammates’ Western zodiac signs. He shared, for example, that Tatum is a Pisces (because his March 3rd birthday falls between February 19th and March 20th). Pisces, according to Western astrology, are known for being empathetic, highly intuitive, and emotionally sensitive. “I learned communication styles that work best for each individual,” Brown said.
Brown also studied numerology, a belief system that assigns meaning to numbers, especially those connected to one’s birth date and name. Brown and Sam Hauser, for example, are both fives. (In numerology, the number 5 is all about freedom, change, and adventure; those who have a life path 5 hate feeling restricted). Brown said he got inspired to go down this path after a few friends put it on his radar before the season. And, he feels like the results have been fruitful. “They kind of suggested it — try to see if it works,” Brown said. “And everybody has a different kind of makeup of who they are and how they approach things. And if you learn a little bit about each person, what makes them tick, you can kind of learn more about how to maximize potential. All that type of stuff added up over the course of the season. And here we are.”
What was the first big moment when you realized, “Boy, finally, I’m in the NBA. This is actually happening. It’s real”? Derrick White: Yeah, I mean, the first time I actually had some real minutes. I check in against OKC, and I go to the free-throw line, and I got Carmelo Anthony and Paul George. And I’m from Colorado, and so Carmelo Anthony was basically my whole childhood. So I’m kind of like, “This is amazing that I’m here next to you. I can’t believe it.” So that was kind of my—my eyes are wide open the whole time. I probably turned it over the next play.
Hugo Gonzalez: “Well, let’s see, it’s true that right now I live with my mother and my brother and my dog at home, so they make life for me, so to speak, a little more like I were still in Spain, right? But it’s different because many, many of my loved ones are in Spain, but well, between planning when they come, when it suits them to come visit me, etc., you have an incentive to know when the next date is when you can see them. I think it’s a bit about having a goal, having something pending.”