
If you happened to notice a very short person holding the game ball in photos of the Boston Celtics locker room after the Celtics’ Game 7 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, your eyes were not playing tricks on you. It was Xavier Goncalves of Raynham, Massachusetts, a 10-year-old cancer survivor befriended by star forward Jayson Tatum according to recent reporting from WCVB’s Mary Saladna.
“It was really cool and it was really surprising that he was willing to trust me with the ball, and just trust me in general to handle this with care,” said Goncalves after Boston’s series-clinching victory.