Lights, camera, action for Max Shulga, but after the action.
A few minutes after the G-League game between the Raptors 905 and the Maine Celtics in Toronto, the Ukrainian guard came back from the locker room to step onto the court again to speak with BasketNews.
With the lights still on, and nobody else on the floor, as he went on stage, he put on a performance talking as if a big crowd was inquisitively looking at him.
He showed himself to be a strikingly mature 23-year-old rookie, the one the Celtics selected in the last draft with the 57th pick overall, via Orlando, after a five-year NCAA career at Utah State and VCU.
Instead of a regular interview, the conversation with Shulga felt more like a touching solo speech from the Kiev native, as he went very deep, reflecting on a multitude of easy and not-so-easy topics.
The Ukrainian, now playing for the Celtics' G-League affiliate team, spoke in detail about his unexpected arrival in the NBA, landing in Boston despite interest from other teams, the character of Celtics' coach Joe Mazzulla, and how having referees in his family helped him sharpen his game.
The poised Shulga was as transparent in manifesting his thoughts as his blue eyes, opening his heart to talk about the impact the war in Ukraine is having on him.
Unlike the shy rookie sparing with his words, he didn't need to be drawn out but ran the show by himself, as he usually does in hoops.
He might be on the right track to make his NBA debut as the determined and crafty guard is averaging 13.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 6.6 assists in 33 minutes.
– The Maine Celtics are getting better as the season goes on, and it seems you are feeling more comfortable on the floor, too. You have not made your NBA debut yet, but how are you feeling in your first year after being drafted?
– It's been a good experience, a lot of stuff to learn from. Ups and downs, just like any other season. Ups and downs individually and as a team. It's a good learning curve, it's a good learning experience.
– I want to take you back to the moment in which the Celtics drafted you.
Take us through your emotions. What went through your mind when you saw the Celtics drafting you, and what were you doing at that moment?
– I was in Dallas with my agency, doing my pre-draft training. We did our draft party in Dallas as well.
I was with everybody from my agency, with Maxime Raynaud. He was drafted by the Sacramento Kings as well; he is a good friend of mine.
We did a pre-draft workout together, us and a couple more guys: Jacksen Moni, who is on the Golden State Warriors G-League team, and Nelluy Jr. Joseph, who plays in France now.
It was all of us over there watching the draft. I didn't really know whether I was going to be drafted. If I did, it would probably be in the 50-60 range.
Once it got to that point, a couple of teams started calling. I didn't really know until five minutes before that the Celtics were going to take me. Brad, my agent, told me, and I was super excited.
You can't really put it into words, because it's something you always dream of and work towards. But you never really know that it's going to happen until it happens.
It was a very surreal moment; it took a while to soak it in and just really believe it. It was super exciting.
**– You mentioned two teams that wanted to draft you before the Celtics did.**– I know the Grizzlies called, and they wanted to draft and stash me, like stash me in Europe.
A couple of other teams, maybe the Bucks, they called before. Maybe some other teams that I'm forgetting, but nothing really like to share.
– You had the opportunity to spend time with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in the training camp. Any piece of advice that either of them gave you?
– Not really directly, but I would say I was learning a lot from watching them, how they approach every single day, coming in, getting their treatment.
They lift before every practice, they go super hard in practice, stay after practice, work out, get shots up with the trainers, with the coaches, stuff like that.
It's just their attention to detail that they really apply every single day. JB would catch the ball, go pound dribble all around every single spot all around the perimeter.
It's just like a pound dribble shot, pound dribble shot, rep after rep after rep. Just seeing what it takes to get to that level is really what I got from them.
– What about Joe Mazzulla? Spaniard Hugo Gonzalez told a funny story about playing machine-gun sounds during practice.
Do you have any other memorable anecdotes to tell that somehow reflect how Mazzulla is as a coach and as a person?
– That was really the highlight of the training camp (laughs). We were doing one-on-one drills, up and down, guarding each other, machine gun sounds in the speakers all around the gym. That was definitely the highlight of the training camp.
It's every day, just how intense he was. He's not letting anybody slack off, holding everybody accountable.
It doesn't matter if you're the 15th guy on the roster or the first guy on the roster. He treats everybody the same. Everybody is being held accountable to a certain standard, just seeing a coach who doesn't care.
I don't really know anybody else, but from what I hear, I don't know if it's true or not, different coaches approach their superstars, players on their team, differently.
That's not Joe, for real. Everybody has a standard they have to uphold; he is going to hold you to it. He just doesn't care.
He is working out seven days a week, in the gym, on the jump rope, just lifting with us. When we were all lifting in there, he was lifting with us.
We had a ref meeting. He is in there talking to the ref, trying to find different ways to maneuver and manipulate the rules and stuff like that. It's how intense and competitive he is, and how he approaches everything.
– You mentioned the referees, and, related to that, I want to touch on your background back home. Your father is a referee; your grandfather on your father's side is too.
**Does having two close relatives who were refs make you more empathetic toward refs?**– Not really. My dad would give me some advice on what kind of spots the refs don't really see on the floor, what you can get away with, stuff like that, to kind of manipulate the game to your advantage.
But not really empathy, everybody has their own job to do, I have my own job to do. We're both in a competitive environment.
**– Any Ukrainian player that you used to look up to growing up?**– Not really, no one that I used to look up to, but definitely Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Alex Len.
Those were the two guys who made it to the league and went to college, paved the way. There were definitely some before, like [Slava] Medvedenko.
But those two were really in my time; I grew up watching them go through college, get drafted, stick with the league, and find their jobs in the league.
Alex Len Svi Mykhailiuk
Alex Len Svi Mykhailiuk
Credit FIBA
I would say they paved the way and made it feel possible, but I wouldn't say I was looking up to them, looking at their game, and taking different things from it.
They're very good players, very athletic, they can shoot, play defense, but I never really had one single player I looked up to. I watched a lot of EuroLeague games, EuroCup, NBA, everything, just watching basketball in general.
– Two more questions, about Ukraine. These are tough times for the country. What pride does it take to represent Ukraine on this international stage in such hard times for the Ukrainian people?
– It's funny, I don't even think about it that much, to be honest. I just go out there, my job is to play basketball, do my best, and try to help my team win.
I just try to do that. I don't really think that deeply into it. There are definitely kids probably watching now, like I used to watch Sviatoslav Mikhailov and Alex Len. I don't really think about it too much, to be honest. I definitely feel the responsibility.
– You've always played away from the Ukraine during the war; you were already in America competing in the NCAA when the conflict broke out.
How have you been personally dealing with it from afar, with your family back home?
–At first, it was very hard, very hard. First, when it started, because I never went through anything like that ever in my life, like worrying every day about what can happen the next day, just worrying about people in general.
Especially worrying about people back home, especially my family, my friends that I grew up with, my close circle.
I've just been talking to them, talking to them about the situation, how it is for them. I'm not really going on the internet that much, because I can't even tell what's true and what's not true from the internet.
I'm just taking information from my parents, trying to feel what they feel on a daily basis, how every day goes for them.
At the same time, I can't live every single day thinking about that; I can't worry about it every second of the day. It's definitely a balance of not forgetting that people back home are really going through it.
At the same time, I'm not letting that really get to me, get to my mind, and mess with me on a daily basis. I definitely hope for some… There is a lot of uncertainty.
I definitely hope for some… I don't really know much about politics, but hopefully it resolves as quickly as possible.
This Rookie Makes NBA Superstars Look Lazy
Toni Canyameras
Toni Canyameras began his basketball media career in 2021, covering FC Barcelona. He became a fan of the sport thanks to Barça and the Japanese manga series Slam Dunk. Toni moved to Toronto in 2022 and has since been covering the NBA from a European perspective, reporting on games, All-Star weekends, and the Summer League. He holds a degree in Journalism, a Master's Degree in Sports Journalism in Spain, and a Postgraduate in Journalism in Canada.
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