“If I have to say he reminds of someone, I’d say it’s a young Steph Curry,” said broadcaster Brodie Brazil, who has been reporting on Bay Area sports since the 2000s. He witnessed the rise of each of the region’s recent megastars, including Curry, Klay Thompson, Brock Purdy, and Buster Posey. He’s seen a few fizzle out, too. “Of course, Steph transformed basketball, and it’s a bit hyperbolic to compare anyone to him. But there was that same sense of, OK, [Celebrini] could and should be special.”
Perhaps nobody in the Bay Area is more excited than a fellow star, Green. The night of Oct. 10, he was seated beside Rick and the rest of the Celebrini family in a box at the SAP Center. He has since taken to rocking Celebrini’s jersey at press conferences.
Following the Warriors’ Nov. 15 matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies, I asked Green about the young hockey phenom. Green had been ejected from the game that night, and the Warriors had finished sloppily, so his previous answers to reporters had been terse. But when I asked about Celebrini, he lit up.
“I’m impressed by him, to say the least,” he said. “He’s being compared to the greats at 18, man. LeBron James was being compared to the greats at 18, and he outlived it. Mack has that thing. Whatever people’s hopes are for what he will become, he’ll outdo that.”