Celtics' Hugo Gonzalez learns a crucial lesson he'll take from Summer League

Boston Celtics' first-round pick Hugo Gonzalez demands a lot of himself. Even the slightest mistake will lead him to walk away, distraught, as he mutters a few words to himself. That comes from a good place.

"When I look at my career, 30 years away — I hope — I can say, or at least I think that I did everything within my hand for being the best player I can be. That's what motivates me," said the Madrid native after Boston's 100-96 Summer League loss to the Miami Heat on Monday.

Matt Reynolds, the Celtics' head coach in Sin City, has fostered a work environment for the team that strikes a needed balance between taking care of business and enjoying the process.

That includes helping Gonzalez find that equilibrium during games, the time when the six-foot-six wing is the hardest on himself.

"In the first and the third games, the ones that I played, he was telling me at the end of the quarters sometimes, 'Are you having fun?'" shared Gonzalez. "I was like, 'Yeah, I'm having fun.' And he told me, 'I'm having a lot of fun right now.'

"So, that's a lesson that he's telling me right now. When I have fun is a better player I am."

On the heels of Boston's matchup against Miami, Reynolds told Hardwood Houdini of how he's helping Gonzalez move on to the next play, "Tell him that we believe in him. We know that he's a great player. We know what he can do for us. And so, sulking about a play, or more so, sometimes he's beating himself up, literally; stuff like that is not productive, and it's not going to help you lock in to the next play.

"Maybe, or at least that's not for me. I don't know what his best methods are for moving on. Maybe that's worked for him in the past, but I've only coached him for two games."

It's an important lesson and an ideal environment for the 19-year-old rookie to learn it in. When the regular season starts and the competition elevates, moving on to the next play and balancing his desire to be great with finding joy on the court will help him achieve his goals.

Hugo Gonzalez shares when he knew he was ready for the NBA

After the Celtics drafted Gonzalez, he immediately did his research on the organization. He leaned on the counsel of his Real Madrid teammates, ten of whom from this season's roster had NBA experience.

"I asked the people on my team that had a lot of NBA experience what they thought about Boston and the organization because I've never been here obviously," Gonzalez told this author in an exclusive interview. "I got drafted this year, and I asked them, 'How was it?' 'How was the franchise, the city, and everything?' And they told me it was really, really good. It's amazing and now I know why they told me that."

But how did the 19-year-old rookie know he was ready to make the jump to the NBA?

“I always said, it wasn't like I want to go at 21, I want to go at 20. I think I just wanted to go whenever I felt I was ready. There was a point in last season that I thought I was ready for everything. Obviously, you've got to give what I got; you've got to adapt and you've got to get better, but there was a time in my head that I thought I was ready and I declared myself for the draft."