Rookie Hugo Gonzalez reveals two favorite Celtics growing up

Boston Celtics rookie wing Hugo Gonzalez, the No. 28 pick in this year's 2025 NBA draft, has revealed his two all-time favorite Celtics from his youth.

Gonzalez is an intriguing prospect for the Celtics, although he may face an uphill battle to actually crack head coach Joe Mazzulla's rotation in 2025-26.

In Liga ACB play for Real Madrid last season, Gonzalez averaged 5.2 points on .444/.271/.773 shooting splits, 2.5 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 0.5 steals per bout.

Per Noa Dalzell and Bobby Manning of Celtics On CLNS, the 6-foot-7 shooting guard/small forward made some intriguing throwback picks for his favorite Boston players.

— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) July 14, 2025

“As we talked about before, the Celtics have got... the most winning franchise in the world,” Gonzalez said. "I probably think that the ones that I liked the most when I was a little bit younger, probably [were] Ray Allen — I like him. I liked Kevin Garnett."

Allen departed Boston to sign with the Miami Heat, for less money than the Celtics had offered, after the 2011-12 season. It marked a controversial free agent move that, for a long time, alienated him from his championship Celtics teammates. 

Garnett left Boston in a trade to the Brooklyn Nets the next year. He, fellow Hall of Fame champion Paul Pierce, and reserve shooting guard Jason Terry were all offloaded in a move that would set the Celtics up for their post-Garnett/Pierce/Allen future.

In the deal, Boston nabbed the future Nets picks that they would eventually use on All-Star champion wings Jaylen Brown (the No. 3 pick in 2016) and Jayson Tatum (the No. 3 selection in 2017, obtained via a pick-swap that year), among others.

Now 19, Gonzalez would have been six when Allen left for Miami and seven when Garnett was shipped off. Much of his youth would have been spent watching 28-year-old Brown and 27-year-old Tatum, his now-teammates, on a variety of deep playoff runs with a revolving cast of supporting characters.

Gonzalez also added a bonus Celtics legend from far before his time to his list of favorite Boston players, but whose best moments have been immortalized on YouTube.

"I didn't [see] it in life, but I like to see some highlights and some history from Larry Bird," Gonzalez said.

MORE NEWS: Jaylen Brown 'disagrees' with how Celtics have used him