Boston Celtics player development coach Ross McMains runs through a drill with NBA All-Star Jaylen Brown. Photo / Boston Celtics
As the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks prepare to meet in the NBA finals, New Zealand could soon have another NBA Champion – Celtics player development coach Ross McMains. He speaks with Christopher Reive about his journey to the biggest series in the sport.
As the Star-Spangled Banner rings out around Boston’s TD Garden, Ross McMains looks to the rafters and soaks everything in.
Of the 30 teams to feature in the NBA, few hold the aura of the Boston Celtics.
In the 78-year history of the club, they have won 17 NBA titles – tied with the Los Angeles Lakers for the league high – while they have retired 23 players’ jerseys. The championship banners and retired jerseys overlook the court, reminding the current crop of those who came before them and the decorated history of the club.
It’s a position that McMains could only dream of finding himself in growing up on Waiheke Island.
The 35-year-old player development coach is part of the current Celtics team looking to send another championship banner to the rafters when they meet the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals, which start on Friday.
It’s the third time McMains has been a part of the coaching setup at NBA level; working with the Sacramento Kings in 2012-13 and the New York Knicks in the 2018-19 NBA season. Speaking to the Herald, McMains says he’s taken a slightly different approach to his current position, particularly in relation to his time with the Knicks – another of the NBA’s more storied franchises.
“I think the most enjoyable thing for me that I feel I’ve done a better job with this time with the Celtics than I did with the Knicks is just being grateful to be in the building,” he explains.
“As much as I feel like I’ve put a lot of work in to have the right to be in this moment and be impactful in this moment, it’s very important to me and valuable for me to view it through myself as an 8-year-old; a little 8-year-old growing up on Waiheke Island, just in love with basketball and obsessed with it, running around playing in any possible outdoor park and going on to Waitākere or Kelston and playing basketball with my friends all over the place out there and view it through that lens.
“I know I missed some of those opportunities with the Knicks where I got too caught up in that moment and missed an opportunity to just be there in Madison Square Garden and enjoy that. It’s been really cool being here with Boston and just making sure every day I appreciate what I get to be a part of in terms of the history of this franchise and just being in the NBA in general and part of the playoffs, it’s been cool.”
McMains’ time in Boston is the latest stop in an impressive basketball odyssey. A current assistant with the Tall Blacks, McMains suggests he has touched basketball at almost every level of the game; from international to NBA, collegiate level to the NZNBL, NBL and European game, while he played in high school and at junior college in the States.
For someone who has always been crazy about the game, it’s been a career to savour; picking up plenty of insights along the way from each different environment.
While he says early in his career his ultimate goal was to work his way to being an NBA coach, he admits his scope has shifted a bit.
“If you’d asked me when I was anywhere from about 12 years old to 30 years old, I’d have told you that absolutely, that’s always been my North Star wanting to be an NBA head coach and sure, maybe that happens one day. But for me, my North Star is just being in a great winning organisation, and that’s exactly where I’m at right now.
“For all the different places I’ve travelled, I think I’ve got the perspective to be very grateful for being here and being excited to just be part of this and contributing to this year after year after year, so hopefully I can be here for a long time and everything else will play out as it does.”
In Boston, McMains finds himself working with one of the more stacked rosters in the NBA. The Celtics assembled a formidable team to mount their championship challenge this season, adding NBA All-Stars Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis alongside the likes of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and a solid core of role players.
The Celtics set the benchmark in the Eastern Conference throughout the regular season, moving into the playoffs as the top seed with a 64-18 record – 14 games better than the second-seed Knicks.
That dominance of the east continued in the playoffs, with the Celtics beating the Miami Heat (4-1), Cleveland Cavaliers (4-1) and Indiana Pacers (4-0) to win the Eastern Conference and book their place in the NBA finals.
“What we have here at Boston is really special and a lot of that starts with the players, every single one of them throughout the whole course of the roster are just tremendous people,” McMains said.
“That’s been so cool to get to know them and see how they work, see how much they care, see how much they sacrifice, see how much they fight for one another, from just every day in practice to in the actual game. That’s been really cool to see and inspiring to be honest.”
Over the next couple of weeks, the Celtics will meet the Luka Doncic-led Dallas Mavericks in a best-of-seven-game series with the NBA championship on the line. For McMains, while the dominance in the east has been nice, this last series will be what defines their season.
“When we won that game and got through to the NBA finals, I did very much feel a feeling of ‘job’s not finished’. While I’m grateful and excited in the moment to be able to say wow we’re in the finals, for me, I’m siloed into a state of being locked in until this job is done.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.