By Mike Hlas

IOWA CITY, Iowa – How can the kids at Luka Garza’s basketball camps in Fayette Aug. 17 and Indianola Aug. 19 possibly relate to someone making a seven-figure salary who is good enough to play in the NBA?

Quite easily, actually

Garza’s basketball story is and always has been someone whose achievements have outdistanced expectations on him, and his game plan has always been the same: Put in the work.

In June, Celtics.com named the fifth-year pro the Boston Celtics’ Sixth Man of the Year. In his first season with Boston, Garza averaged career-highs of 8.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 16.2 minutes, 57.7 percent field goal percentage and 43.3 percent 3-point percentage.

As Celtics.com noted in this story, Garza’s 3-point shooting was the best by any center in the NBA, and his true shooting percentage of 68.2 percent was the second-best clip in NBA history by a center with at least 100 3-point attempts.

That’s pretty good for someone who hadn’t been a regular part of a playing rotation in his first four NBA seasons.

“I know it sounds simple,” Garza said by phone Monday, “but I think a lot of it was, first of all, opportunity. You know, getting out on the floor, getting a chance to play, and especially for the Celtics with the coaching staff that we have, players that we have. Once I was able to get that opportunity and have some time out there, I kind of was able to to figure out the things that work for me on a nightly basis to impact the rotation and to impact winning.”

Those things aren’t all exciting. But they’re winning things, things that get you playing time for a winning franchise that went 56-26 last season.

“For me, it was the little things” Garza said. “Screening, getting guys open, crashing the glass offensively, getting offensive rebounds, and being able to stretch the floor and make good decisions when the ball does get to me.

“At first, it was hard. Like I hadn’t figured out quite what works for me. I think just going through the middle stretch this season when I was starting to get a lot of time, that’s kind of when it all clicked for me. I realized ‘OK, there’s a couple things I can do every single night that’s going to help the team.’ So I try to just go out there every single night and do those things.”

Garza’s journey to becoming Everybody’s All-America for his last two seasons at Iowa wasn’t common, nor was his path to getting a 2-year, $5.26 million contract with the Celtics a year ago. He can tell the kids in Fayette and Indianola that he wasn’t born with a basketball silver spoon in his mouth and has battled every step of the way to Boston.

“I think it might be harder to relate to me now,” said Garza, “but it’s not hard to relate to the guy who averaged four points a game as a freshman in high school.

I think it might be harder to relate to me now, but it’s not hard to relate to the guy who averaged four points a game as a freshman in high school, who didn’t really know what his future was in basketball, and just continued to work at it, chase it, and believe in himself, and then was able to see results and success from that.”

They are words supported by accomplishments. Garza wasn’t a Top 100 high school recruit coming out of high school in Washington, D.C., but did get a scholarship offer from the Big Ten’s Iowa, courtesy of Fran McCaffery. He contributed immediately, but made a huge leap from his sophomore to junior seasons, going from 13.1 to 23.9 points per game.

As a senior, Garza averaged 24.1 points for an Iowa team that he led to a 14-6 Big Ten record, the program’s best conference mark since 1986-87. And oh yeah, he was the consensus National Player of the Year.

Then it was time to start over. Most National Player of the Year honorees like the last two, Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer, become very high NBA draft picks. Garza went 52nd in the 2021 draft, by the Detroit Pistons. He spent time in the NBA G League his first two seasons. He played in 32 games for Detroit in his rookie season, and no more than 39 in any of three seasons at Minnesota.

A free agent after the 2024-25 season, Boston signed Garza. Not everyone in Celtics fandom was wowed by the transaction. But as the season went along, he began winning over fans and his team, and scored a career-high 27 points in the team’s final regular-season game. He played in all seven games of Boston’s first-round playoff series loss to Philadelphia.

All that gives Garza the credibility to offer a message to his grade school, middle school and high school campers about tackling challenges with desire.

“For me,” he said, “the main (message) is to find what you’re passionate about in life, and then commit to giving that everything you have every single day. And when you do that consistently, and you continue to chase and attack it, it will always lead you in a positive direction.