Sam Hauser’s mom shares how a core childhood lesson molded his Celtics success

From a young age, Sam Hauser was taught by his parents to never, ever worry about his stats.

All that mattered in the Hauser family was the victory.

That’s what his mother, Stephanie Hauser, relayed to CelticsBlog in a conversation earlier this month, in which she reflected on her son’s ascension from an undrafted University of Virginia standout to the major contributor on an NBA championship team.

Both Stephanie and her husband, Dave, played basketball in college. Their kids, Sam, Joey, and Nicole, were all athletes growing up, with Joey currently playing in the G League and Nicole having played college volleyball. And, it was ingrained in the Hauser children from a young age that regardless of the sport, all that mattered was the win.

“As long as there’s a hash mark of a win versus a loss, then as long as you are contributing in a way — doesn’t matter what way, even if you’re just setting screens — that’s ultimately what’s important,” Stephanie explained, recounting the message she hammered home to her children.

Accepting that individual stats don’t matter is easier said than done, but Stephanie recalled how she saw Sam buying into that mindset in real time. In a major high school playoff game, Sam scored just two points while racking up a bunch of blocks and rebounds.

She checked in on her son after the game — and was pleased to see where his head was at despite a poor shooting performance.”

“I did what I could control,” he stated simply, and maintained a good mood after the game.

It’s that mindset that has made Sam Hauser so successful on the Celtics

Sam Hauser has been the Celtics’ best three-point shooter throughout his tenure. This season, despite a slow start to the year, he’s once again shooting 41.8% from beyond the arc on the season, recently exploding for 24 points on 8-10 from three against the Trail Blazers on Sunday.

In his entire career — high school, college, G League, and NBA — he has never shot below 40% from three.

Hauser’s role has fluctuated a ton, especially on the Celtics. Some nights, like when he went off for a career-high 33 points on 23 shot attempts against Utah on March 10th, he’s been a focal point of the offense.

Other nights, he’s played more limited minutes and been far less involved; Hauser has attempted 5 shots or fewer in 26 games this season.

You won’t catch him worrying about his shot attempts or point totals, though.

“I know it sounds cliche, but he really doesn’t care which role he needs to play,” Stephanie said. “They’re vying for that championship. It’s really important to him.”

An early love for basketball turned into a massive payday

This past summer, Hauser’s on-court selflessness and innate shotmaking ability were rewarded with a 4-year, $45 million contract.

Shortly after, he chatted with CelticsBlog about what the contract meant.

“I just played for the love of the game, and this is sometimes just the benefit of that,” he said. “Pretty special that they gave me an opportunity early on when nobody else did, and I just tried to run with it. They believed in me, and I’m just glad I could be here and be with this team and have another chance to win it all.”

Stephanie recalled just how early Sam’s love for the game became evident — and how his first words foreshadowed a lifetime of basketball to come.

“The story I love to tell was when he was about two years old, the first two-word sentence he ever said was ‘Me shooty,’” she said. “He had a little Nerf hoop, and he literally just loved shooting on that little Nerf hoop all day. And that was the first two-word sentence he ever put together.”

“That was the first moment we knew that this was kind of something he just loved to do. He would do it all day long if he would have let him, honestly.”

It clicked for Stephanie that her son might have a future playing basketball years later. In his junior year of high school, Hauser exploded for 16 first-quarter points in a high-stakes game against the three-time defending state champions.

The score entering the second quarter was 16-15, and he had scored all of Stevens Point High School’s points.

Toward the end of his high school career, he began receiving Division I basketball offers and ultimately chose to play at Marquette University. He returned home after preseason training, overwhelmed at the talent gap between the players he competed against in high school, and what awaited him in college.

“He came back, and I remember him saying to us, ‘I don’t know if I can do this. These guys are so good and so fast,’” Stephanie recalled.

How Tony Bennett and a year at Virginia changed everything for Hauser

Hauser had a great three-year career at Marquette, averaging 14.9 points per game in his junior season and establishing himself as one of the country’s premier sharpshooters.

He opted to transfer to the University of Virginia for his final season, a decision that his mother attributes a lot of his success to. There, Hauser had the best season of his college career, averaging 16 points per game on 50.3% shooting.

Stephanie believes that the year at Virginia made Sam truly believe in himself and his capabilities. Under head coach Tony Bennett, he played with more confidence than ever before.

“Tony Bennett was, hands down, the difference-maker for Sam,” Stephanie said. “Tony Bennett instilled a belief in Sam that he had a special gift — his ability to shoot the basketball.”

At Virginia, the prospect of Hauser continuing his basketball career after college became real. Bennett told the senior that he truly believed he had a chance to play in the pros.

“It’s one thing to have someone say it, but to really feel that they believe it,” Stephanie trailed off. “Tony Bennett believed it. And he instilled that belief in Sam. I think that was the first time, maybe, that Sam really started believing it.”

Hauser went undrafted after college and immediately signed a two-way contract with the Celtics. After a stint in Maine, he began earning bench minutes in Boston and saw his shooting gift carry over to the NBA.

The Celtics’ championship run

Hauser’s basketball journey culminated in a championship in June. He was not just a member of the 2023-24 roster; he was one of the team’s key contributors. Hauser shot a team-best 47.8% from three-point range in the NBA Finals and held his own defensively when switched onto then-Mavericks star Luka Doncic on an island.

Stephanie wasn’t surprised to see her son excel defensively, despite the prevailing notion that he was a weak defender.

“This might sound a little bit like mother’s bias, but I never agreed with that assessment. Sam has never been a poor defender.”

She said her son got a chip on his shoulder upon hearing people say that he wouldn’t be able to defend at the next level, and that he’s always maximized his defensive potential: “He might not jump the highest. But he’s extremely smart — very smart. He knows what his drawbacks are, and he uses his brain to make up for them.”

Throughout the journey, Stephanie and Dave stressed to never take any of the success for granted. Last summer, when the discussions about the Celtics potentially going back-to-back began, Stephanie urged her son to just relish the moment.

A few months later, when Hauser suddenly began dealing with back issues, his mother recalled how relevant the family’s live-in-the-moment mindset became.

“You never know what’s ahead,” she said. “Fortunately, with great training staff — and Sam takes such good care of himself — he’s dealing with it and working through it.”

His mother told him not to get discouraged at the uncharacteristic shooting slump.

“I just said to him, just keep shooting, because you know in the end, it will all suddenly end up at around 40%, because your whole life, that’s exactly what’s happened.”

She was right.

In March, Hauser is shooting 45.7% from three to once again bring his season average above 40% — to 41.4%, good for second-best on the Celtics this season.

And, after he set a new NBA career high in scoring earlier this month, his mother immediately called him, his phone ringing during his postgame media availability.

Stephanie describes the whole journey as surreal — and she ultimately attributes a lot of her son’s success in Boston to his selfless mindset.

“Sam is the epitome of a team player. He will do whatever role Coach Joe needs him to do on a nightly basis.”

She adds, perhaps most pridefully: “He’s never cared about stats. He just doesn’t care about stats.”