Hugo Gonzalez Shares Lessons From A Dream Come True And His Celtics Ambitions

Real Madrid means everything to Hugo Gonzalez. The basketball club carved out a place in his heart as a child. He watched his idol, Rudy Fernandez, help lead them to six ACB championships and three EuroLeague titles. That includes Fernandez earning ACB Finals MVP honors in 2018.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez was rising through the ranks. He started at Madrid Academy when he was 10 years old. His game grew rapidly in the eight years the club spent molding him.

His ascent happened quickly enough for him to team with Fernandez. In 2023-24, he experienced championship success alongside his hero, as Real Madrid reigned supreme in the ACB.

While Fernandez wasn’t there the following season, Gonzalez shared a roster with ten players who had NBA experience. As the season unfolded, they counseled him on what it would take for him to find success on that stage.

“I’m just trying to play like I play. They told me that I’m going to have success,” Gonzalez told Forbes in an exclusive interview at Summer League inside the Mendenhall Center, an air-conditioned state-of-the-art practice facility offering a reprieve from the sweltering July heat in Las Vegas.

“Everything in my game needs to improve. I think there’s always room to improve, but they told me to keep being yourself; keep having the energy that you [have] got. Keep shooting whenever you’re open, with confidence. They’re going to give you confidence for shooting and just be yourself because you’re going to succeed like that.”

Hugo Gonzalez celebrated twice on draft night

Jun. 25, 2025, is a date Gonzalez will never forget. His dream of winning an ACB championship with Real Madrid again came true. In the early hours of the morning, the Boston Celtics made him the 28th overall pick in the NBA Draft and the first Spanish player they’ve selected in franchise history.

Some teams may have viewed Gonzalez’s inconsistent playing time and the fact that he only averaged 11 minutes per contest, fitting in on a roster filled with decorated veterans, as a reason to shy away from drafting him.

The Celtics saw the positive side of how it helped shape the 19-year-old wing.

“When we interviewed Hugo a couple of weeks ago on Zoom, it’s really clear that he’s about the team, and he accepts and is willing to play any role it takes,” conveyed Stevens on the heels of the first round of the draft.

“That’s not a learned trait for everybody that’s in the draft because most of these guys have never sat. And with that comes a humility and also an understanding that you’ve got to invest every day just to take advantage of whatever opportunity you get.”

While Gonzalez had to get to Boston quickly, he wasted no time in doing his due diligence about where his basketball journey is taking him.

“I asked the people on my team that had a lot of NBA experience what they thought about Boston and the organization because I’ve never been here obviously,” Gonzalez told Forbes. “I got drafted this year, and I asked them, ‘How was it?’ ‘How was the franchise, the city, and everything?’ And they told me it was really, really good. It’s amazing and now I know why they told me that.”

Hugo Gonzalez doesn’t want to look back with regret

The last three weeks have been a whirlwind for the Madrid native. He went from completing a championship chase in Spain to arriving in Boston and then rerouting to Las Vegas for Summer League. That’s not an excuse he’s leaning on.

He’s also acclimating to a vastly different style of play. What he’s accustomed to is a methodical offensive approach, bleeding the shot clock, and constant cutting in an attempt to get free breaking to the basket.

It was evident that his head was spinning in the first half of his Summer League debut. The NBA operates at a speed that rivals NASCAR. The best shot will often come early in the possession. Players don’t hesitate to take those shots.

Still, there’s only so much grace Gonzalez gives himself as he adapts. A prime example came less than five minutes into his second game in Sin City.

The six-foot-six wing had the ball stripped by Kira Lewis Jr. and immediately fouled the Miami Heat guard. After the whistle, he walked down the floor despondent. He shook his head, stared up at the Cox Pavilion scoreboard to see the replay, and muttered a few words to himself. His Summer League head coach, Celtics assistant Matt Reynolds, walked over to ask, “you good?”

As the 19-year-old rookie matures, Reynolds told Forbes of working with Gonzalez to help him move on to the next play, “Tell him that we believe in him. We know that he’s a great player. We know what he can do for us. And so, sulking about a play, or more so, sometimes he’s beating himself up, literally; stuff like that is not productive, and it’s not going to help you lock in to the next play.

“Maybe, or at least that’s not for me. I don’t know what his best methods are for moving on. Maybe that’s worked for him in the past, but I’ve only coached him for two games.”

The root of why he’s so hard on himself is a burning desire to be great.

“He really wants to be good,” Brad Stevens voiced a day after Gonzalez registered 12 points, five assists, four rebounds, two blocks, and one steal in his first Summer League appearance. “You can tell he’s got a good work ethic, a good compete level. There’s a care factor there.”

It’s the product of the need to know that when his playing days are over, he has done everything in his power to maximize his immense potential.

“When I look at my career, 30 years away — I hope — I can say, or at least I think that I did everything within my hand for being the best player I can be. That’s what motivates me,” stated Gonzalez.

As he starts this new phase of his life, learning a new country and adjusting to the NBA, he exuded an air of confidence while conveying to Forbes what his mentality is as he strives to prove why the Celtics made the right decision in betting on him.

“Just being as I am. I’m trying to have the same mentality that I have always had,” said Gonzalez. “Being a winner, and trying to improve every day, every practice, every game, trying to learn something new, trying to, right now, to adapt and everything, but just trying to keep being myself for improving.”

Hugo Gonzalez is going from one elite organization to another

The Madrid native was born to play for the club he fell in love with in his childhood. But there’s considerable pressure that comes with wearing that uniform.

In Real Madrid’s 94-year existence, they’ve captured 31 Spanish League championships. That’s the most ever. It includes dynasties that won seven consecutively and ten straight. They have also won 24 Spanish Cup championships, eight EuroLeague Championships, and four Saporta Cups. Each of them makes them the record-holder.

That type of success fosters championship demands from their fans. Anything short of that is considered a failure.

Boston will feel familiar to him in that sense. The Celtics reside in a sports-crazed region that saddles the same expectation on its teams.

Granted, Gonzalez’s rookie season might be an exception. The NBA’s original monarchy is likely headed for a gap year as Jayson Tatum recovers from a torn Achilles and the organization deals with the repercussions of spending the last two years over the second apron.

However, their roster reshuffle lends itself to giving their first-round draft pick more opportunities to play through his mistakes. As he goes through the growing pains that await him, what he won’t need much time to showcase is a motor that runs non-stop and an edge that will quickly endear him to the Celtics and their fan base.

“He plays hard; really hard. Fans are going to love that,” voiced teammate Jordan Walsh. “He plays hard. He dives on the floor. He’s a defensive menace.”

“That’s all, more or less, what I am playing on the court,” Gonzalez told Forbes when asked back in Boston if that’s always been how he carries himself on the court. “I don’t know how to play it another way. So, that’s probably the thing that defines me as a player.”

Those traits make him a defensive nightmare. At Summer League, he’s pressuring opposing ball handlers in the backcourt, demonstrating impressive screen navigation that makes him difficult to dislodge, and offering a glimpse into his defensive versatility.

Another element that hasn’t been on display in Las Vegas yet, but figures to make its way to the NBA, is his effectiveness as a weak-side rim protector.

It’s not a primary part of what he brings on defense, but he’ll utilize his six-foot-seven wingspan, basketball IQ, and that high-revving motor to rotate to secure the cylinder.

“If they need me to guard a shifty guard, I’ll try my best, always,” Gonzalez told Forbes. “If they need me to guard a guy that is stronger than me and taller than me, I’m giving 100 percent of me for having the team succeed. Whatever the staff and the coach ask me to do, I’m doing it.”

What Hugo Gonzalez provides offensively

When Gonzalez gets the ball, he’s looking to attack. The 19-year-old’s ability to use his physicality to create separation against grown men is an impressive feat.

He also has long strides and is crafty off the dribble, making it that much harder to keep him from the basket. That also lends itself to creating quality scoring chances for his teammates.

However, that’s not the skill that Brad Stevens raved about on draft night.

“Cutting,” said the Celtics’ president of basketball operations while discussing what stands out to him about Gonzalez. “A willingness to do sacrificial things, I guess. We talk about sacrificial cuts that open up opportunities for other people; we talk about sacrificial cuts that end up in you getting an offensive rebound.”

The feel he has as a cutter stems from the style of play in Spain and from developing in an elite organization. When asked about the principles and coaching points that Real Madrid taught him, Gonzalez told Forbes that it stems from a trust that he had to earn.

“They are trusting me a lot on how I see the basketball and everything. They’re telling me, whenever you feel it or you feel good for cutting, you have got a lot of freedom because they know that I’m good in that situation, and they are giving me the freedom for trying to read whenever we’re playing in transition, we’re playing in the low post, or anything like that, and they’re just letting me read when to cut.”

What will determine Hugo Gonzalez’s NBA ceiling?

Shooting is the swing skill that will primarily set the Celtics’ first-round pick’s ceiling. Fortunately for him, he has come to an organization with a proven track record in that area.

“He will become a better shooter, I believe that,” stated Stevens on draft night. “We’ve got a good development program for that. So, I’m excited about him.”

Gonzalez told Forbes his No. 1 adjustment is acclimating to the NBA three-point line, which is further back than in Spain. However, as the Celtics encourage him to let it fly without hesitation, he has done just that.

Whether it’s off the dribble or the catch, he has proven that he isn’t shying from opportunities and the chance to attack this perceived weakness.

“I’m pretty lucky that I’ve got a staff that is pushing me right now to get better, to perform really good, and they’re just giving me confidence of shooting whenever I’m open,” Gonzalez expressed to Forbes.

While the 19-year-old isn’t passing up the shots that come his way, he’s also not employing a selfish approach. He has always been someone to put the team first.

“Well, the goals that we have in Madrid — that was the primary thing,” Gonzalez told Forbes about balancing the need to sacrifice to fit in alongside a loaded roster while simultaneously pushing to achieve his individual goals.

“Same right now in Boston, I don’t got any expectations for myself, just trying to compete, trying to be useful for the team, and the other things will come. I am really happy that I got here with the job that I did. Right now, I’m trying to do the same thing. Trying to do whatever they need me to do for the team’s success.”

That mindset brought him to Boston. It’s also why Gonzalez can blossom into a player who beautifully complements Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Tatum, upon the latter’s return.

For a Celtics team aiming to return to title contention when that happens, Hugo Gonzalez is a significant figure in those plans.