By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
After being selected with the 28th overall pick of the NBA Draft 2025 presented by State Farm and joining the Boston Celtics, 19-year-old Hugo Gonzalez is getting ready for his first campaign in the league.
“I’m not gonna say Celtics, I’m gonna say the American basketball,” he talked about adapting to a new environment during preseason media day on Monday, “It is different from the European one. It takes a process. It doesn’t take two or three weeks. It’s a little bit longer. Hopefully, I’ll try to cut it up as much as I can. I think that I’m on a great path, but I think that you always have something to learn. I’m learning more about the culture, learning about Boston, not only as a franchise, but as a city.”
Drafted by the C’s on June 25, combined with winning the ACB championship with Real Madrid.
“I kept myself awake until 6 am,” he reflected on a crazy evening, “Since I got drafted, I got like two or three or four days, I would say, before coming here, Boston, to prepare for the Summer League. The Summer League finished it like, late August, I would say, so I had another week, week and a half more or less, and then back to work. We have been working a lot. I think the work in the summer has been really good.”
The majority of Madrid’s players previously displayed their talents in the NBA, and during last season helped him prepare for the next challenge.
“I got blessed that I got a lot of teammates that, instead of, trying to have an 18-year-old, in that moment, in a part, they got me on their wing and tried to help me in that season and especially also to adapt me for the next season how it could look like in the NBA, the things that I need to improve and the things that are gonna help me in the future,” he praised his former teammates, “They did a super good job with me like in that part. I’m super grateful for them.”
Considering possible options for the 2025-26 journey, Gonzalez also answered a question about whether he would accept a move to the G League’s Maine Celtics.
“I think that whatever plan they got is gonna be all right,” he stressed, “I’m just following the instructions they got for me. I think that the thing is they’re gonna be always honest with me and whatever plan they got for me, for the moment it’ll be it’ll be good.”