A Celtics wing was selected to play in the 2026 Rising Stars game, but not the one you might expect.
Hugo Gonzalez, Boston’s high-energy, high-impact rookie, did not make the cut for the annual young-player showcase, which will be held during NBA All-Star weekend in Los Angeles. Two-way player Ron Harper Jr. will represent the Celtics at the event as one of seven G League players selected.
It will be an opportunity for the 25-year-old Harper to compete alongside his younger brother, San Antonio Spurs rookie Dylan Harper. They are the sons of former NBA guard Ron Harper, who won five championships with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“Yeah, one, congrats to him,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said Monday after the Rising Stars roster was announced. “That’s kind of cool that they have a family that three of those guys are going to be together. I think that’s pretty amazing.”
Harper Jr., who parlayed a training camp tryout into a two-way roster spot, has put up strong numbers for the Maine Celtics this season, averaging 24.4 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks across 16 G League appearances. Most of his limited playing time for Boston has come in garbage time, but the Rutgers product made a surprise early-game appearance in last Friday’s double-overtime win over Brooklyn, subbing in midway through the first quarter.
“To me, it’s just trust,” Mazzulla said of Harper, who’s also appeared in games for Toronto and Detroit in his four-year NBA career. “I watch him work out when he’s with us. The other side of that is the professionalism. When he gets there early, he’s in the weight room doing what he’s supposed to be doing. He’s in the treatment room if he needs to be. He communicates at a high level.
“So there’s just a level of trust there that — his shooting, obviously, it helps a ton. He’s a secondary ball-handler, and I think his defense is good. Any time we’re in games the day after, he’s constantly pushing to become a better defender. So just like the other guys, (if) we put him out there, he’s going to impact winning.”
Gonzalez, Boston’s 2025 first-round draft pick, has regularly impacted winning in his first NBA season. Among all players who have logged at least 500 minutes, the 19-year-old owns the third-best net rating (18.5), trailing only Oklahoma City’s Alex Caruso and Jaylin Williams. (OKC players also occupy the next four spots on that list, followed by Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama.)
However, Gonzalez’s traditional stats lag behind the 10 rookies chosen for Rising Stars (Memphis’ Cedric Coward, Philadelphia’s VJ Edgecombe, Dallas’ Cooper Flagg, Washington’s Tre Johnson, Toronto’s Collin Murray-Boyles, Brooklyn’s Egor Demin, New Orleans’ Jeremiah Fears, Dylan Harper, Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel and New Orleans’ Derrik Queen), nine of whom are averaging at least 10 points per game.
Gonzalez is averaging 4.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.3 blocks while shooting 51.5% from the field and 38.6% from 3-point range.