Ross McMains brings perspective and joy to Celtics coaching staff

When Svi Mykhailiuk comes out to heat up earlier than Boston Celtics video games, he follows the identical routine, and all of it begins with a trick shot. He’ll seize a ball from the rack at half-court and take a stand-still hook.

Sooner or later, he nailed it, however nobody caught it on digital camera. Mykhailiuk pointed over, pleading for me to have gotten the shot on video, however my cellphone was down.

A couple of moments later, participant improvement coach Ross McMains stepped onto the hardwood. He began chatting with Mykhailiuk, and the Celtics wing revealed that he had lastly made the shot. However McMains didn’t imagine him.

He requested if it was on movie, however no cube. No proof meant no credit score.

Not lengthy after that, on considered one of Mykhailiuk’s subsequent few makes an attempt, I had my digital camera rolling. He sunk the shot and pointed at me in acknowledgment.

However McMains was none too happy.

He checked out me and expressed his sarcastic disappointment that I had gotten the shot on digital camera, waving in my course as if to say, “Don’t give Svi the satisfaction.”

Mykhailiuk then rolled into his regular exercises, the place he and McMains’ pre-game ritual begins. If Mykhailiuk misses his first shot, he has to run all the best way right down to the opposite aspect of the court docket and again. And each time he does, a smile creeps throughout McMains’ face.

That smile is at all times there.

Whether or not he’s making Mykhailiuk jog down the court docket, guarding guys in a taking pictures drill, or jokingly upset that I obtained a trick shot on digital camera, he’s continuously smiling.

Even when Xavier Tillman calls him out on the bench to come back run by means of exercises with him, McMains loves it. He even scores a sneaky bucket each on occasion when he will get the prospect.

McMains’ love for basketball runs deep, spanning a number of continents and millenniums, and it was perpetually centered on teaching.

Picture by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Photographs

It was at all times basketball for Ross McMains.

Hoops programs by means of his veins. It’s a love that pushed him to make historical past, even when there was nobody there to see it.

“Ross, greater than seemingly, made the very first basket of the millennium,” stated Shea Frazee, a well-respected coach and shut good friend of McMains.

McMains cemented himself in basketball lore with out anybody realizing.

“He was dwelling in New Zealand on the time, they usually get the brand new yr first,” stated Frazee. “So, he, proper at 12, made the very first bucket of the millennium. And Ross would possibly like basketball as a lot or greater than anyone I’ve ever recognized.”

Although he was born in New Hampshire, McMains grew up on Waiheke Island in New Zealand. He moved again to the US at age 11 and finally attended Santa Barbara Excessive College.

Whilst a excessive schooler, teaching was the plan.

“I believe Ross has been attempting to educate since he picked up a basketball,” stated Charlie Torres, a highly-regarded coach for a lot of NBA gamers and McMains’ long-time good friend. “I’ve heard tales of Ross going to coaches clinics when he was like a sophomore in highschool.”

After highschool, McMains returned to the place he grew up and at roughly 18 years previous, took a job with the New Zealand Breakers as a video coordinator in 2007. However it didn’t take him lengthy to move again stateside, as he moved to Los Angeles roughly a yr later to assist practice numerous professional gamers.

From there, McMains ran NBA pre-draft prep for 2 years earlier than working with gamers in Latvia, France, and China. He then studied at Santa Monica School from 2008 to 2010 and at John Cabot College in Rome in 2011. There, he gained a larger understanding of European basketball, increasing his hoops palate.

Earlier than his teaching profession absolutely started, McMains already had one of many worldliest views within the house.

“I believe having an American dad, a Kiwi mother—he grew up on this little island in New Zealand, Waiheke Island, so he had a extremely distinctive sort of upbringing,” stated Dean Vickerman, the top coach of Melbourne United, who McMains coached below throughout the 2019-20 season.

“Dwelling on some boats elsewhere. And I believe that was definitely part of the journey bug, that his dad and mom would bounce round from totally different locations, and I believe he grabbed a few of that. However there was at all times a thirst for information about totally different cultures.”

McMains transformed his international experience into ball information.

“Wherever all over the world, he’s obtained a chance to both be taught one thing himself or add some information to another person,” stated Vickerman. “So, yeah, he’s fairly rounded in his perspective of the sport, and I believe the best way that he can train the sport is from a perspective of, simply that spherical, broad method to what Europeans are doing, what the Aussies, what the Kiwis, what the Serbians have executed.

“So, I actually imagine that when you could have him as a coach, you’re getting a high-level perspective of basketball.”

Employees picture by Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald through Getty Photographs

McMains has gained invaluable perception at each cease of his worldwide teaching tour, which has helped him set up his standing as one of many best basketball minds across the globe.

“Everybody is aware of he’s a genius, basketball-wise,” stated Isaac Fotu, who McMains coaches with the Tall Blacks.

“One of many smartest basketball brains that I’ve been round,” stated Vickerman.

“Every thing on the court docket or throughout the group, I take into account Ross to be as clever and genius-level as one would get,” stated Frazee.

McMains’ eye for the game goes previous the court docket. He’s studying and educating the sport in each side of his life, from the hardwood to a bag of Lay’s potato chips.

“[He’s] at all times [been] a scholar of the sport,” stated former NBA participant Nigel Hayes, who McMains coached in Westchester. “Like, there’s a technique to speak about basketball, after which there’s a manner the place it organically is rather like, you’d be taking a look at chips, and the best way the chip cracks, [and] he’s like, ‘Nicely, see the best way that chip cracked, that’s like the identical crack that you have to minimize on the court docket. Like that angle.’ Bizarre stuff like that.”

Picture by Randy Belice/NBAE through Getty Photographs

Past the bag of chips, McMains’ expertise from his many stops has allowed him to develop a eager sense of what the following development will probably be.

“To be like a basketball savant is a extremely arduous factor as a result of the sport is at all times altering,” stated Torres. “It’s at all times shifting. Like trend. And Ross is often 5 years forward of that trend assertion. So, he seems to be somewhat loopy. However then it’s like, you look again 5 years later, and it’s like, ‘Oh, Ross was telling me about this.’”

And he’s at all times conserving these round him up to date on the place the sport goes.

“So, now it’s like, everybody’s utilizing stuff that was in Europe 5, ten years in the past as vocabulary. And who did I hear that first from? Primarily Ross,” Torres stated. “You recognize what I imply? Like totally different phrases, totally different phrases, [and] totally different concepts.

“I imply, the man wants his f****** flowers. You recognize what I imply? He wants his roses. His bouquet. He wants the entire s***. As a result of [he’s] advancing the sport. He does it each day.”

Even when the world shut down due to COVID, McMains nonetheless discovered a technique to push the sport ahead. Torres stated that he would arrange Zoom calls the place he would “provide you with particular conditions, they usually’d begin a timer prefer it was a timeout.”

“Genius,” stated Torres. “It was giving us all our teaching rush.”

For all of the work he’s put into learning the sport, McMains has at all times been in a position to translate it into his teaching. Getting his message throughout to gamers has at all times been a energy.

“He’s not going to do a exercise with somebody with out spending the hours beforehand,” stated Vickerman. “Realizing as a lot as he can about individuals, after which realizing the areas of enchancment, after which in all probability having some video prepared of [the] greatest apply on this planet of somebody who does this talent that they may be capable of move on or attempt to see a special manner of doing it.”

McMains methodically prepares the whole lot he teaches on the court docket. Each participant he coaches is handled as a person. Slightly than making use of common concepts throughout the board, he takes the time to rigorously domesticate detailed exercises and developmental plans for every of them.

It’s why gamers are endlessly itching to get within the health club with him.

“Each exercise you do with him is restricted to your place and also you as a participant,” stated Fotu. “It’s not simply any cliche drills he’s going by means of, it’s particular to what you’re going to be doing within the sport and what you have to enhance on, [and] what he feels you have to enhance on as a participant, which was tremendous useful, particularly in our camps.

“Everybody could be lining as much as get a exercise in with Ross earlier than or after apply as a result of they understand how useful it was.”

Picture by Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe through Getty Photographs

The intricacies of McMains’ teaching go deeper than taking pictures types and on-court specifics. He takes private anecdotes and turns them into hilarious methods of pushing gamers ahead.

“I hate to sound like that individual, [and] this has nothing to do with it, however I’m vegan,” Hayes defined with fun. “I’m not attempting to be that vegan, alright? I’m not doing it. This isn’t the place that is going. However anyhow, my weight loss plan pertains to the story as a result of, throughout video games, he would at all times come up and be like, ‘Alright you f****** vegan, use that plant energy.’ And like, that was our factor—plant energy within the fourth quarter.

“When there was like 5 minutes left within the sport, we had been at all times like, ‘Vegetation don’t get drained.’ In order that was at all times our little factor. He at all times had issues that he might say to totally different guys that had been their little inside jokes, if you’ll, or inside motivation. Yeah, that’s, once more, one thing else I simply remembered. Plant energy within the fourth quarter.

“I really instructed myself that two weeks in the past, and I forgot the place it got here from. However in my thoughts, I used to be on the bench like, ‘Alright, plant energy. We obtained to energy by means of.’”

It’s an ideal mix of humor and depth.

“You recognize, they’ll name gamers, like, this participant is a canine, or that participant is a canine, and that simply means they’re prepared to take the additional degree of depth and struggle to the aggressive scenario,” stated Frazee. “And I assume you name coaches much less that manner, however Ross is a canine as a coach.”

He pours his coronary heart into serving to his guys enhance, doing something he can to present them a bonus, even when meaning benching a participant throughout a exercise.

As soon as, whereas attempting to educate a participant about shot choice, he needed to take issues into his personal arms.

“Ross [was] attempting to, over the course of weeks, beat this into this individual’s head,” Frazee stated. “They usually get right into a drill the place there’s a great quantity of autonomy to take any shot you need throughout the context of the motion they’re figuring out of.

“And this participant shoots like a 17-foot pull-back leap shot, and Ross simply makes the loudest horn sound you might ever think about and tells him to go to the bench as a result of he’s subbing him out of the sport [even though] it was a person exercise. And I nearly died [laughing].”

Picture by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Photographs

McMains carries himself with a radiating sense of elation always.

“There’s a pleasure and a enjoyable factor that he that he likes to educate with, and have interaction individuals, and discover that little aggressive edge,” stated Vickerman.

If McMains is on the court docket, he’s smiling.

“I’m positive if Stan Van Gundy noticed us within the health club, he could be ripping the hair, or the hair that he has left, out of his head due to how a lot enjoyable we’re having within the health club,” Torres stated.

With all of the work McMains put in to get to Boston, the gig he has now’s a dream come true.

“He smiles an excessive amount of, and he’s having simply a lot enjoyable. Each day is Disneyland for Ross,” stated Torres. “Going to the world, going to the health club, going to the apply facility, he’s at f****** Disneyland. Getting to protect Jaylen Brown. Attending to have Jaylen Brown guard him in a scout. With the ability to go eat with these guys.”

And simply as he does with Mykhailiuk pregame, McMains has at all times made it a behavior to mess together with his gamers.

“He’s cracking jokes [with] the fellows that had been on the crew,” stated Hayes. “Making enjoyable of, for instance, like, we’d be engaged on one thing that you simply did final sport, and he’s making a joke about like, ‘Yeah, as a result of final sport, you tried that transfer, and it regarded like s***.’ You recognize, one thing like that.

“So simply, like I stated, tried to maintain issues mild, tried to maintain issues good. However yeah, he was great. And clearly, it’s displaying off [with] the place he’s at now, and he deserves all of the success and the whole lot that’s coming to him.”

That’s the place McMains’ mastery of the sport goes from elite to otherworldly. He doesn’t simply know basketball. He doesn’t simply coach basketball. He embraces everybody he interacts with.

Picture by Randy Belice/NBAE through Getty Photographs

McMains could love hoops greater than something on this planet, however he additionally loves the individuals behind the game. And that’s what makes him exceptional.

“That’s the factor that Ross brings,” stated Torres. “He’s not only a skilled. He’s a human. And he desires to make it possible for these professionals which are away from their houses and households and buddies and all that crap, he desires to make it possible for he’s there for them.”

McMains final coached Hayes in 2018, over 5 years in the past. They solely spent one season collectively. But he left his mark.

And now, with Hayes enjoying skilled ball in Turkey, McMains nonetheless discovered a manner to make use of his teaching fashion to present him a nudge.

“They [McMains and Torres] had been simply bullying me in a bunch chat,” stated Hayes. “They simply put me in a bunch chat, these two, and began bullying me about this yr. So, these guys are nice with their — that’s their humor. Their humor is, it’s like wholesome hate. Like, the bullying that doesn’t make you’re feeling dangerous it makes you go. ‘You recognize what, Ross is correct. I actually do obtained to step it up. I do want to do that. I do want to do this.’

“And him and Charlie collectively, Ross and Charlie collectively are like f****** Larry and Curly. They simply want Moe.”

His demeanor has helped him type long-lasting relationships that span a number of stops, years, and continents. Whether or not it’s a textual content in a bunch chat or welcoming a participant into his life, McMains’ benevolence is aware of no bounds.

“One summer season, I went to work out in Santa Barbara, and he occurred to reside there on the time,” stated Fotu. “Simply hanging out with him off the court docket, he launched me to his buddies, we went out to eat tacos, and go get ice cream, do all these issues. And simply hanging out with him off the court docket is superior. Simply his vitality as properly.

“He’s hilarious, too. He’s a humorous man. However yeah, simply the vitality on and off the court docket. He’s the identical dude. Works arduous on the court docket, after which off the court docket, you simply need to hang around with him. So, he’s only a good dude.”

Picture by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Photographs

McMains was at all times going to be a coach. He pushed himself into the sector from an early age, and his devotion to the sport led him on one of the vital unbelievable paths within the trade.

The extent at which he perceives the sport is a direct results of his expertise and willingness to educate with an everlasting jubilation that resonates with everybody he crosses paths with.

McMains has made an simple impression on the sport of basketball. He has already executed a lot for the sport, and on the identical time, he’s simply barely begun.

“I pray every single day that that man goes to be a head coach, as a result of the basketball world deserves it,” stated Torres. “Not solely does the world deserve it, Ross deserves it. No person’s executed what he’s executed. No person.”