J

part I: timeline

ok first, a quick mack timeline (courtesy of wikipedia/elite prospects so hopefully accurate) to give us a little framework to work with:

DOB 6/3/06

hometown: vancouver, canada

in 2018 or 19 the family moved from canada to the bay area in california when rick became director of sports medicine and performance for the golden state warriors; mack played for the jr. sharks during this time period (rick got the job in 2018 and the family moved a year later so not sure of specific move date)

attended shattuck st. mary’s during 20-21 and 21-22 seasons

played for the chicago steel in 22-23

played for BU (along with brother aiden) in 23-24

part II: TSN triptych

OK! there were so many ways to approach this post, but I am most compelled by the TSN triptych of the connor bedard, fantilli brothers, and now macklin features, both because these three families had vastly different approaches to raising their highly touted hockey prospect sons, and because TSN framed their stories through much different lenses. the narrative here isn’t JUST rick celebrini and his insane dual parent/director of player health and performance role in his children’s lives, but how the sports world embraces and normalizes it.

so as our starting point, let’s compare and contrast each feature (viewing not required, but all three are linked below if you're so inclined):

connor bedard: connor is the main character of his own feature, which is firmly rooted in his hometown of vancouver, where he is the center of the universe. they interview his neighbors for fuck’s sake! but the framing is very interesting – connor is presented as having this innate drive to work/improve that everyone around him encourages and embraces (for the most part). all of connor’s quotes are strictly about hockey and his craft. did you know connor bedard has a sister? you wouldn’t, watching this feature. (this isn’t a slight against connor – this is TSN’s framing.)

it is interesting to note there is some minor tension between his parents, who disagree on camera about their parenting approach and if they should have deferred to connor as much as they did. (dad had a policy of “no rules” (i.e., allowing connor to break things practicing hockey in the house), which mom didn’t love but apparently didn’t put a stop to. the family also let him bring his hockey gear on a trip to hawaii when he was like 10, so it’s just very clear no one set any limits with this kid when it came to hockey.) anyway, the clear messaging presented here is that a gift like connor’s should be nurtured & everyone else, neighbors included, should sacrifice to accommodate greatness like that when it comes along, and just allow a prodigy like connor to do his thing.

fantillis: adam and luca’s bond is the main character, and both parents are unified in talking about their brotherly bond and the differences in their approach to the game, but neither brother is presented as more 'elite' than the other, despite their obvious skill difference. adam’s quotes are about what luca means to him, and what it’s meant to get to play with his big brother vs. the development of his hockey skills.

this isn't the post to fully get into the fantilli family group decision making model, but there are some good quotes that capture their parenting style. their mom says they “[made] the right decision for each son based on their own circumstance at the time, and we were just really lucky and fortunate that it worked out that they got to be together.” but the most telling quote is from their dad:

“I don’t want it to end. It’s not a long ride that they’re going to get to play together and no matter where their hockey takes them, they’re going to look back at these three, four, five years that they play together as the best time of their life.”

truly I don’t think you can tell a story about adam’s hockey origins without luca, so TSN didn’t really have a choice on how to frame this feature, but there is a clear difference in the fantilli parenting approach here vs. the bedards, and the value placed on that quality family time, the recognition of specific childhood/young adult time and experiences you can't get back, and the importance of not taking it for granted. obviously adam was the lowest draft pick at #3 of this group, and this might be the reason for it, but the fantillis appear to have valued raising a much more well-rounded kid with goals beyond excelling in sports.

also interesting to note there are no guest appearances in the fantilli feature; it’s a complete family affair.

celebrini: without question, rick is the main character of this feature. every opening quote is about him (including from draymond green!!!!), even if the voiceover starts talking about macklin a solid 30 seconds in, like they finally remembered this spot is supposed to be about their highly touted hockey prospect. and god, these quotes about rick include some DOOZIES:

“He cares so much, nobody else cares as much as he does.”

what an interesting word choice from mack’s mom here. we’ll get into what this “caring” looks like later, but clearly rick’s parenting style was being normalized and portrayed as care/love within that family. (which, from a fic perspective, is delicious to consider. how do you know if someone cares about you if they’re not pushing you to be better every day? if they’re not finding your limit and tasking you to go beyond it? can you trust that they really care about you if they’re not showing it in a way that tests your abilities to the brink?)

mack’s mom also says that mack is “lucky he’s got the resource of his dad,” and that mack hangs on every word – just reinforcing that there was no parent in that house questioning if this approach was good for mack as a person (there’s no doubt it was good for him as an athlete, but that's not what this post is about, is it?). mack’s brother aiden also has some really telling quotes:

“We always had to make it our priority to get better every day.”

or what, aiden? no, I don’t actually think this was a threat from rick lol, but clearly this was the value that he was pushing on all the kids, to the point it was most probably unhealthy. aiden also says this, which only reinforces that lack of healthy balance:

“He was our dad, but he was also our director of player health and performance. ‘What’s your plan today? What are you doing to get better today?’ That was his philosophy with us growing up.”

YIKES! these aren't just quotes either - there are clips of the rick "coaching" all four kids when they were little (including mack and aiden's younger sister and brother), doing squats and running up hills and shit. (so it should be pointed out - i don't think anyone explicitly says 'getting better' has to be physically, but it's strongly implied? they weren't cracking books open or improving their mental wellness, ya know? 🥴)

even steve kerr, GSW head coach, who of course was also interviewed for this feature, is like, uh? maybe chill with the kids??

“We joke a little bit with Rick, do the kids really need to hear that every single moment? Can you just – maybe watch a movie with the kids one night?”

granted, both kerr and aiden’s soundbites are given with a little smile, like ‘oh, you know rick – that’s just how he is!’ but it’s very clear why rick is the main character here lol. he is the one running the show in that house. aiden and mack are parroting his messaging, and his wife thinks he’s an invaluable resource who cares more than anyone about the kids, pushing them to be the absolute best so they can excel.

mack, too, has nothing but effusive things to say about his dad, about the hard, important work he’s put in with the athletes he works with, and the most intriguingly, trots out his dad’s philosophy like it’s his own, almost like he hasn’t realized that he’s completely internalized the messaging:

“Every day there’s always something you can do to get better. Doesn’t always have to be the hardest thing in the world. You can just go shoot pucks. It kinda becomes a habit, becomes a routine and what you do. It gets to that point where some off days, I’m like, I don’t feel comfortable not doing anything today.”

yeah bud. I bet you don’t 😭

obviously it takes the whole family, trainers, coaches, teammates, etc. for any hockey player to develop to an elite level, and you can only fit so much into a 5 minute feature, but it’s fascinating to me to see how TSN slices that cross section for each of these players. who can be cut from each of their stories? who is a load bearing wall that their narrative would crumble without? on the flipside, what sells? bedard is packaged as this almost lone wolf prodigy with some innate greatness in him that deserved to be nurtured by the community around him, adam the result of a close-knit family and a brotherly bond that transcends hockey, and mack a high caliber product hand-crafted by his father in some kind of sports lab created specifically to excel. what I’m saying is, we aren’t the only ones out here writing fanfic, you know?

part III: dad's dual roles

this video from sportsnet is an interesting comparison to the TSN feature, as it's got very similar framing with rick as the dual dad/director of player health and performance, but does a slightly better job remembering that mack is supposed to be the main character. it's a little bit longer than the TSN feature, but it's fascinating how some repetitive phrases start to emerge that get at an important thesis statement here...

first, after a clip of rick coaching mack through some exercise, there's this exchange:

Mack: "I like this stuff." Rick: [laughs] "Because you grew up on it."

there it is in a nutshell! this is the closest anyone comes to acknowledging it aloud, though i'm going to get at it more in depth in a second.

then we've got these soundbites from mack and aiden during their individual interviews:

Mack: "He's our dad but he's also an unbelievable resource." Aiden: "He's been coach for us and manager for us and advocate for us. He's been our biggest fan and our harshest critic. It makes it really easy to have all those resources in one man."

sound familiar? who else has called rick a resource the boys are lucky to have? 🤔

and this final quote from the madman himself:

"When they needed empathy, when they needed support, when they needed, you know, a hug, I was dad, but the other times, I would be the disciplinarian, you know: you need to be on time, you need to go through your process, and get them, at a very early age, to understand what it means to have a professional approach. You're locked in and you're buying into a process that will allow you to achieve your goals. Your defined goals, not mine."

"your defined goals, not mine." okay sure rick! because you always knew exactly when they needed dad and when they needed director of player health and performance, and they for sure didn't internalized the messaging they had to improve every single day, and they came up with those goals all by themselves and weren't influenced at all by the adults in their lives, which included not only you and your wife but all those athletes they had exposure to who were so close to you guys they agreed to be interviewed for all these features about your family. uh huh. okay. i am for sure buying what you are selling here.

ok, switching gears a little bit, we have GOT to talk about this quote that's been floating around from this athletic article (and the context of it):

mack and rick are telling this story to the interviewer together, recounting how rick pushed the boys to their absolute limit on this particular day.

his "audacious" moment!! mumbling something under his breath, not even swearing at his dad, because his dad made him and his brother run like, insane sprints up and down a hill for 30 minutes after several hours of workouts earlier in the day because he was in a bad mood!! and MACK is the one being audacious! OKAY! talk about the power imbalance here being completely out of wack because you've got both father/son and coach/athlete roles overlapping!!

if you have an athletic sub, this article is SO good because they frame the entire thing around 'the hill' story and keep circling back to it, but this little chunk is probably the most intriguing characterization bit of all:

mack goes on to argue that this specific workout was going to fuck them for the week because they literally wouldn't have the energy for the rest of the planned workouts, that there wasn't going to be the time for rest/recovery or whatever, but he still listened to his dad and didn't quit during the workout itself. his big act of rebellion was to say 'we're fucked' afterwards!! and the way this article calls it the workout a VIOLATION of the indoctrination his dad preached, the philosophy mack was taught and internalized, that this story is so infamous that it's still being brought up and discussed in draft interviews... OOF!

but here's how the hill story ends after they got home:

makes me feel absolutely insane that this particular workout is presented as a violation of trust, that rick (for lack of a better word) exploited the family culture and his son's competitive natures/drive/ambitions, knowing they wouldn't quit, to push them to their absolute physical limits, beyond what they expected from a mental standpoint from their already insane workout schedule, lit mack up for a minor verbal dissent after he complied, and then mack's response afterward is physical affection and gratitude?? rick. rick what have you created. rick i don't think this is good!! have you taught your son to be careful who he trusts because if he goes blindly handing those reins over to the wrong person they are going to damage him!!

not that rick is going to let anyone take the reins.

part IV: rick in control

well i did warn you guys this post was going to be long, didn't i? this is the last section, i promise, but this section is vital.

from this athletic article, we learn how BU successfully recruited mack from these quotes from BU's coach and assistant coach:

rick arranged for mack and aiden to tour the campus, and the next thing you know both boys committed. whenever mack talks about it, he presents it like it was his choice to go to BU and that he liked the campus, which sealed his decision, but given how he's clearly spent his entire life internalizing everything his dad has ever said to him, makes you wonder how much rick even arranging the campus tour impacted this decision, you know? of course, mack literally being a 17-year-old college freshman, it makes sense his family/dad in particular would be involved in that kind of decision.

what's more insane is this:

San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier took us behind the scenes of Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith’s development plans on Monday. “There’s been a lot of thought and effort put into this from our performance group, led by Mike Potenza, the medical staff, the training [and] strength conditioning staff,” Grier said. Potenza is the San Jose Sharks’ director of high performance. Grier added that Macklin Celebrini’s father, Rick Celebrini, the Golden State Warriors’ director of sports medicine and performance, is involved with Celebrini’s plan, though not with Smith’s. “[With Rick] being in the sports science world as well, he had input and is on board with everything that we’re going to do with him,” Grier said.

(source) i am sure the sharks are absolutely thrilled about this (🙄) but truly, no end in sight for rick's over-involvement in mack's life, or for mack to have any realizations about how not-normal any of this is. of course mack wants rick involved! rick shaped his whole life, helped him get to where he is, has been there driving him every step of the way! and now mack is the face of a franchise only 40 minutes from home, where rick can keep close tabs on him and his development and continue to help him reach the next level.

from a (fic) narrative perspective, mack's at the perfect cusp-of-adulthood age to finally start having some realizations about how overly enmeshed his dad is in his life, to maybe start questioning his upbringing and what it cost him. maybe he'd still choose to make all the same sacrifices to get where he is anyway, maybe he can't carve out the parts of himself that have been so deeply embedded since childhood they feel like they're innate when they've actually been planted as seeds, maybe every eye-opening moment of realization changes nothing.

or maybe he's over at patty marleau's one night, playing ministicks with his boys and will in the basement, laughing so hard his belly hurts at something stupid, will letting one of the kids score on him because it makes his little face light up, and he thinks, oh.

finally, one last bonus quote from rick from one of the athletic articles because it didn't fit anywhere else and this is an insane thing to say about your son: