Payton Pritchard calls his belief ‘delusional’ and says his $44.2 million extension won’t change his hunger

Payton Pritchard says the belief that carried him from the 26th pick to a $44.2 million extension was, by his own description, delusional, and he insists the new deal will not slow him down as the Boston Celtics open the season on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Celtics’ practice facility on Sunday morning, Pritchard looked back on the path that took him from barely playing early in his career, and once asking for a trade, to a championship, a Sixth Man of the Year award and 50 starts last season. “It was delusional, but I just had a crazy belief in myself,” he said, adding that he never put a ceiling on the kind of player he could become.

His explanation for how it happened was simple: routine. Pritchard said the difference is showing up with the same effort every single day, while many players work hard one day and coast the next, and that the progress only shows after weeks and months of repeating it.

Taking less to bet on himself again

Pritchard agreed to the two-year extension on Tuesday, October 13, as Shams Charania reported, with a mutual option for 2029-30. The new money starts after his current deal runs out, and it was less than the most Boston could have offered. Pritchard did not see that as a sacrifice. He pointed out that the raise takes him from roughly $8 million a year to about $22 million, called that plenty, and said he would rather keep improving and earn another big contract a few years from now.

That attitude extends to his role. Pritchard said he judges a starter by minutes, by whether he closes games and by his impact, not by hearing his name in the introductions, and that he will come off the bench without complaint if Joe Mazzulla decides that helps the team most. Mazzulla, for his part, praised his toughness and described a player who competes with something to prove yet carries no ego.

The numbers behind the raise

His whynba player page shows a steady climb: 9.6 points in the 2024 title season, 14.3 in his Sixth Man year, then career highs of 17.0 points, 5.2 assists and 3.9 rebounds in 32.4 minutes over 79 games in 2025-26, with a 37.7 percent mark from three and 89.0 percent at the line. In seven playoff games last spring he averaged 14.6 points and 5.1 assists.

Pritchard turns 29 in January and will be 32 in the last season of the new deal, an age when smaller guards often decline. He said he is chasing nobody but his own best version and does not know how far he can push it.

What comes next

The Celtics open the 2026-27 season at the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday, October 20, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock (Game Center).