Celtics' Xavier Tillman found real leadership in an unexpected place

BOSTON — Boston Celtics big man Xavier Tillman and NBA Champion Brian Scalabrine stood at the front of the room, addressing a crowd of middle school students and educators from across the state. They spoke about their time in high school, including Tillman’s self-described “knucklehead” tendencies.

But once they handed the microphone back, they were asked to take a seat. Not at the front of the room, not in their own section, but amongst the students. That’s what the evening was about.

It was part of a Playbook Initiative workshop, in partnership with New Balance and led by Project 351, with the goal of preparing the next cohort of students and trainers for conversations around race, gender, religion, disability, and orientation in a safe-space environment, drawing from personal experience and plausible scenarios.

Xavier Tillman is committed to the Boston community

At one point, the students (and Celtics) were asked to split into two sides based on their response to a question: “Is being a leader a choice?”

Tillman and Scalabrine said no. Some believed that people are born leaders, while others saw being put in leadership situations, such as becoming a parent, as being uncontrollable. But once the microphone was handed to those who said yes, Scalabrine switched sides.

One student noted that, at a particular stage, being a parent may not be a choice, but sticking around and making responsible life decisions is. And that’s what being a leader is.

“They're very aware,” Tillman said of the students. “They feel the same struggles that everybody else feels, and it's not like a generational gap that they just live on their phones. They're very aware that there's still a lot of negative social constructs out there that we're trying to work through.”

The Celtics host various community events through partnerships across the state. Tillman has been a part of plenty. Last year, he judged a “cooking” competition where elementary school kids had to prepare different plates of food for him.

He’s popped around to numerous different events around the city, but this one felt different.

“This experience was pretty cool, because it wasn't the super young kids,” Tillman said. “These are high schoolers, right? So, they have matured minds and stuff like that, and they're able to think by themselves. And this event, specifically, was more so focused on being vulnerable and being put in situations to where they have to answer questions based on their prejudice and how they came up, and it was pretty cool to see people's opinions.”

And for Tillman, the conversation part was easy.

“For as long as I've been alive, I think I've been known as a talker,” he said. “If you ask my mom and my siblings, they'd say, I've always been a talker, for sure. So, yeah, I've always felt comfortable enough to speak my opinion. Whether you take it or not, that's another question. But for sure, I'll say my two cents.”

Whenever the microphone was handed to a new student, a new talking point came up. Opinions changed, people shifted their views, and everyone listened.

There was no hostility. It was just a conversation. And that’s what made it work.

“Nobody was going back and forth,” said Tillman. “They were just honest. It was pretty cool.”