Following his third season with the Boston Celtics—one in which he averaged just 5.6 points per game in limited minutes—guard Payton Pritchard was determined to grow his game, expand his role, and play NBA basketball at the high level he knew he was capable of.
Talks throughout that summer ultimately led to the C’s signing the 6’1″ playmaker out of Oregon to a contract extension. Now, just over two years later and still with the team that drafted him, Pritchard is the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year.
Throughout Boston’s 2024-25 season in which they won 60+ games for an NBA record 15th time and earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, Pritchard tallied career highs in points (14.3), rebounds (3.8), assists (3.5), and FG% (.472) across an also-career-high 28.4 minutes per game.
He cites one main reason for his jump in success this year: “The work over time.”
“It’s like a compounding effect,” Pritchard told Sports Illustrated in an interview. “You never know when you’re going to break through. So over time, just getting a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better. And then obviously this year happens, you get a little bit more opportunity and then you just take full advantage of it, and then you start to—people start to see the different aspects of your game that they maybe didn’t see before. And the confidence side of it.”
Said “different aspects” of Pritchard’s game include consistency, an unselfishness on the offensive side of the ball, and an improvement on defense—tallying just under a steal-per-game with a defensive rating of 0.112. Al Horford spoke of his teammates’ development on Tuesday afternoon:
“I’m just so proud of Payton and the job that he’s done,” said Horford while pumping his fist as he was asked about him winning the 6MOTY award. “His consistency with his work ethic and how hard he works, how he’s taken care of his body, how he took the challenge on this year and [tried] to take us to another level … he’s making the right play after right play in different moments … I’m just very, very happy for Payton.”
Al Horford started smiling and pumping his fists when asked about Payton Pritchard being a finalist for Sixth Man of The Year:
“I’m just so proud of Payton… I don’t think it’s any secret. I don’t want to jump the gun, but I’m just very, very happy for Payton.” pic.twitter.com/r52uvm7yIE
— Justin Turpin (@JustinmTurpin) April 22, 2025
As his teammates sing his praises however, Pritchard admits that it can be difficult to take a step back and realize what he’s been able to accomplish this season.
“It’s hard sometimes,” he told SI. “People always tell me, like, I should enjoy it. But I feel like when you’re the one doing it and you’re trying to just take steps, that it can be hard sometimes to sit back and be like, ‘Oh, I’ve done all this.’ I feel like that might be something more at the end of my career, but like me being as hungry as I am, I’m always just like, ‘How can I now take the next step?’ … I’m searching for the next thing to just keep getting a little bit better.”
Now onto the postseason with a championship focus, Pritchard says that “next thing” is doing whatever the Celtics need him to do as they look to win the NBA Finals for a second straight year.
“That could be different game to game,” he explained. “It could be scoring one game, but it could be defensively. I need to be, you know, a pest, or stuff like that. So it’s just affecting the game in many areas.”
In Boston’s game one win over the Orlando Magic, Pritchard stepped up as star Jayson Tatum struggled from the field. He led the bench with 19 points on 6 for 8 shooting—including 4 for 6 from three-point range—and added three assists while finishing with a +13 plus-minus over 25 minutes of game action.
Whatever it takes.
Prichard is the fourth player in Celtics franchise history to win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, joining Kevin McHale (2), Bill Walton, and Malcolm Brogdon.
