Celtics Wrapped Up Day 1 of Training Camp by Playing Another Sport Entirely

Sep 25, 2025; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla runs on a treadmill at the Auerbach Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

The 2025-26 Boston Celtics figure to look quite different than they did in 2024-25.

Boston general manager Brad Stevens made some tough, cost-cutting decisions over the summer, ultimately getting rid of starters Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, and letting both his rotational reserve centers, Al Horford and Luke Kornet, depart in free agency.

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With six-time All-Star forward Jayson Tatum likely out for most of the year (or perhaps all of it) recovering from an Achilles tendon tear, there was no good reason for new majority owner Bill Chisholm to foot the Celtics' looming $500 million payroll, outside of hoping the core pieces that brought Boston its 2024 championship could remain relatively elite in 2026-27.

Armed with a new supporting cast that figures to include elevated center Neemias Queta, fresh trade addition Anfernee Simons, and newly signed vets Chris Boucher, Josh Minott and Luka Garza, head coach Joe Mazzulla is taking a unique approach to team practices during the first week of training camp.

Zack Cox of The Boston Herald reports that the first day of Boston's training camp this season included a 2-of-2 Spikeball competition (a popular beach game), designed to loosen up the roster.

Boston's official YouTube page featured highlights from the tournament.

Cox reveals that that 2025 Sixth Man of the Year point guard and Minott played in the finals against two-time All-Defensive Team guard Derrick White and Exhibit 10 signing Ron Harper Jr. The latter team won it all.

For Mazzulla, using non-basketball athletic competitions has been come a frequent staple of his practices. Cox notes that Mazzulla has had Boston play wiffle ball, pickleball and football in previous practices, plus a speed-walk relay race.

Mazzulla's thinking this time around was that player communications during 2-on-2 scenarios was an important skillset to develop.

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“I mean, I think it’s the closest thing to a 2-on-2 situation that you have to communicate,” Mazzulla said. “It’s a read. You have to read the angle of where it’s being put at. You have to read the angle of your teammate. You have to be able to get through a 2-on-2 situation. That’s a lot of what the game is. You’re in 2-on-2, 3-on-3 situations. Very rarely are you in a 5-on-5 situation, maybe if you’re switching everything at the end of the game. But the game is a constant ecosystem of small 2-on-2s, 3-on-3s, and being able to create those an advantage and a disadvantage."

“So those 2-on-2 games create that. They test your reaction time. They test your ability to communicate. They test your ability to create angles. So I think those things, it’s another way to simulate what you’re going through on every possession of the game.”

Mazzulla went on to cite a keep-away exercise in soccer workouts, the “rondo” drill, employed by one of his favorite coaches, Pep Guardiola, as another useful team-building exploration designed to build out similar skills to Spikeball.

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“Rondos in soccer are probably one of the easiest ways to create a bunch of different stuff,” he said. “Game-like situations, joy, teamwork – different situations, whether it’s offensively or defensively. We can’t really do that because our guys are probably inept from a soccer standpoint, but I think Spikeball is the next-closest thing to a rondo-type situation that you could be able to do. So however many ways you could test the communication and the reads of everything that’s going on in the game, (we) try to find ways to do that.”

Per Cox, Boston's strength and conditioning team chose the two-man groups this time. Jaylen Brown played with third-year wing Jordan Walsh, Queta joined second-year swingman Baylor Scheierman, Simons was paired with top rookie draft pick Hugo Gonzalez, Garza suited up alongside two-way rookie signing Max Shulga, and veteran sharpshooter Sam Hauser and played with another two-way rookie, RJ Luis Jr.

“Our strength staff does a great job of helping to come up with that, so they kind of take ownership of the warmup stuff,” Mazzulla said. “So they have a lot of other good ideas, and then they do a lot of the team stuff too. They’re important because they see individual dynamics when there’s eight guys lifting in the weight room every day. So they have a good understanding of what interactions with the guys are – who needs to be around each other and who flocks to each other."

For more news and notes on the Boston Celtics, visit Boston Celtics on SI.