The Sam Hauser hype train is rolling ahead of the 2022-23 Boston Celtics season.
Hauser has shown off his impressive shooting stroke early in the preseason. The 24-year-old tallied 14 points in the opener and 22 on Wednesday night. He shot 5-for-8 from beyond the arc in his 26 minutes on the court vs. Toronto, making him 9-of-13 from 3-point range through the first two exhibitions.
Celtics-Raptors takeaways: Sam Hauser a bright spot in preseason OT loss
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The C's will count on Hauser to take a step forward in his development and add much-needed scoring off the bench this season. It's a job he quite literally was born for, according to his mother Stephanie Hauser.
Stephanie joined our Chris Forsberg on a new episode of the Celtics Talk Podcast and discussed how Sam's passion for basketball began. Judging by Sam's first sentence, he was destined to be a sharpshooter in the NBA.
Celtics Talk: Hauser Mania!! Getting to know more about Sam | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
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"He literally just gravitated to it as soon as he could walk and talk," Stephanie said. "He loved the Nerf hoop, and Sam's first two-word sentence was, "Me shooty."
"He had a little Nerf hoop and he just had the perfect little follow-through. I said to my husband, "Did you teach him that?" My husband was a basketball coach and (Sam) would come to the gym with Dave (Sam's father) on the daily, and he just watched. Watched those high school boys shooting and he had this perfect little follow-through with a little Nerf hoop.
"That's all he wanted to do. I always joked that Sam was not one you really had to punish but if you did have to punish him, just take away the Nerf hoop and he'd cry and cry. Because all he wanted to do was "shooty" all day long."
Also discussed in the episode: What’s it like as a mother to see your son getting an opportunity in the NBA? When did Sam’s passion for basketball start? When did Stephanie realize Sam could become a professional basketball player? And an exclusive 1-on-1 with Sam Hauser.
Check out the latest episode of the Celtics Talk Podcast on the NBC Sports Boston Podcast Network or watch it on YouTube below.