Sam Hauser is best known for his ability to hit 3-pointers at a more than a 40-percent clip, but he also can throw a good deep ball.
Sam Hauser is best known for his ability to hit 3-pointers at a more than a 40-percent clip, but he also can throw a good deep ball.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Before Sam Hauser turned into one of the NBA’s top long-range marksmen, he was a three-sport star at Stevens Point (Wis.) Area High School. He hit jump shots for the basketball team, pitched for the baseball team, and played quarterback for the football team.
“If you ask my parents, my mom would probably say, ‘You were a great quarterback,’ ” Hauser said. “I was, like, OK. But I had a good arm, put it that way.”
Hauser’s father, Dave, coached him on the freshman football team. He said the linemen were not exactly hulking.
“So we started throwing the ball around the yard a little bit with Sam,” he said.
He was the varsity team’s starting quarterback for much of his junior season before shifting his entire focus to his primary sport. But every now and then, he flashes that strong right arm on a basketball court, too.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was aware of the skill, and it was part of his calculus when he hastily determined how the Celtics could overcome a 5-point deficit in the final 7.9 seconds of overtime against the Nets on Friday.
“When you’re going through your late-game progressions, you have a group of a bunch of different lineups,” Mazzulla said. “Who are your best inbounders? Who are your best guys that get open? Who are your best guys that can throw fullcourt passes?”
Mazzulla said the latter list includes Hauser, Baylor Scheierman, and Derrick White. In this case, White was sitting out to rest and Scheierman was on the bench, so Hauser was the easy choice. But he is also an elite shooter, so the fact that Mazzulla had him flinging the ball downcourt rather than taking a shot showed how highly he values the forward’s deep ball.
The Celtics still had a timeout when Ziaire Williams stepped to the free-throw line for Brooklyn. But Boston knew it would need to score twice, and this was its best chance to catch the Nets in an unsettled situation.
So, Mazzulla called the aptly named play, ‘Touchdown.’ It is reminiscent of Bryce Drew’s iconic 1998 NCAA Tournament shot in which a fullcourt pass to his teammate was redirected to him for a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in an upset win over Mississippi.
On this day in 1998, Bryce Drew hit an iconic buzzer-beater to give 13-seed @ValpoBasketball a legendary upset 👏 #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/uS7oyYE8Om
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 13, 2024
Hauser said the Celtics worked on the play near the start of the season, but two-way contract center Amari Williams was not part of the tutorial. When he subbed in during those free throws, his first appearance of the game, he received a brief primer from Mazzulla before heading to the scorer’s table. His teammates offered further instruction while they stood in the lane.
“Just that it’s a touchdown pass and that you should expect the ball and just be at the top of the 3-point line,” Williams said.
Hauser, for one, was excited to at least get the chance.
“Joe just kind of yelled out the play and we were like, ‘All right, we’re doing it,’ ” Hauser said. “And then you just kind of grab it and go, and the other team doesn’t have a chance to guess what you’re doing.”
After Ziaire Williams’s second free throw stretched the Nets’ lead to 117-112, Hauser, a lifelong Packers fan, took the ball and backpedaled toward the baseline as he scanned the court.
“I had to take my drop-back, like [Packers quarterback] Jordan Love,” he said, smiling.
Amari Williams overtime highlights:
✅ Perfect touch pass to set up a Pritchard 3
✅ Excellent read for an and-1 layup
✅ Huge block to keep Boston ahead by 4
Incredible poise for a rookie two-way pic.twitter.com/pGcWTZlGYn
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) January 24, 2026
Payton Pritchard, who is among the NBA’s best at racing upcourt for buzzer-beating 3-pointers, raised his hand as he began to dart down the right sideline toward halfcourt. But throwing it to Pritchard there would have burned too much time for a team that needed to score twice.
“The idea is just to throw it up to the big fella,” Hauser said of Amari Williams. “There are other options, but you’re trying to hit two guys down the sideline, which would be tough. So, the idea is to just get it to Amari and let him make the play off that. If that doesn’t work, you’re [expletive] out of luck, I guess.”
Hauser curled his right arm back and flung a pass to Williams, who was standing between the foul line and 3-point line about 75 feet away.
“It was a great pass,” Williams said, “on line the whole way.”
Williams jumped, caught the ball, and passed it to a streaking Pritchard at the right arc before he even landed. Pritchard shook his defender with a pump-fake, took one dribble to his left, and hit the big shot with 3.9 seconds left.
Brooklyn’s Nolan Traore hit just one of two free throws, and after using the timeout they’d wisely saved, Celtics guard Hugo González hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 0.2 seconds left to force a second overtime. Boston eventually finished off the chaotic win, a win that was made possible by Hauser’s big right arm and comfort as a quarterback.
Down 3. 2.5 seconds left.
Subs in Hugo González off the bench.
González sends the game to 2OT.
💯 Level IQ coaching from Joe Mazzulla last night!
Boston would go on to defeat Brooklyn on the road. pic.twitter.com/Y6Hij0Eh3X
— NBA (@NBA) January 24, 2026
Dave Hauser said that at family gatherings, Sam and his younger brother Joey still play a game in which one puts his hands in a specific position, and the other must hit the target with a football to score a point. He said it gets competitive.
“Sam always had that really smooth throw,” Dave Hauser said. “When you watch him throw that pass the other night, that’s how he throws it, just nice and easy and smooth, and usually on target.”
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.