“I’ll tell you this,” Maria Harper said over the telephone Friday, “after the Spurs win the championship, they’re going to share that brotherly moment and then Ronald is going to tell Dylan to his face, ‘I’ll see you next year.’ ”
What a story that would be for the Harpers, from the boys’ father, five-time NBA champion Ron Sr., to their youngest sister, Mia, the undisputed best athlete of the family, for proud mother Maria and her two sons. Separated by six years but bound by the tightest of heartstrings, all eyes right now are on 20-year-old Dylan. The No. 2 pick of the 2025 draft, Dylan’s 10-point outburst off the bench in the first quarter of Game 1 made him the youngest player to record 10-plus points in an NBA Finals game.
“He’s always played years beyond his age, and he showed again how he can affect the game,” Ron Harper Jr. said Friday, driving from Boston to the family’s New Jersey home that sits less than 30 miles northeast from Madison Square Garden, which they frequented often growing up as Knicks fans. “For lack of a better word, I need the Spurs to win. I watch the games, and it’s really nerve-racking, but being able to watch him on the big stage, to be among the last few players still playing, it’s really special.”
Ron’s sincerity speaks to everything their relationship is about. From their youngest days, when comparisons to their father littered their basketball road with what could have been crushing expectations, Ron set the path. His drive, his work ethic, his ability to drown out noise and be his own man, Dylan saw it all. Modeled it all. When Ron fought the doubters and took his no-star high school recruit status to one of the two Division 1 programs to offer him a scholarship, Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell got a program changer, an example setter, a student who would finish his four years with a degree in journalism and a player who would finish a Big Ten career as an All-American.
Ron took Rutgers, one of the longest-suffering programs in college basketball, to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 40 years (and then back to a second). He was not selected in that ensuing 2022 draft, but he kept working his way through opportunities in Boston, Toronto, Detroit, and back to Boston, where he carved such a niche this season that Joe Mazzulla trusted him to start Game 7 of the playoff series against the 76ers.
“I’m just so thankful he’s in Boston,” Pikiell said. “I thought Ron was as draftable a player as there was in college basketball his senior year. He was over 1,800 points. He got better every single year. I always knew he was a pro. He just can score. And the way the pro model was drifting into the position-less player, I’m so glad that [team president] Brad [Stevens] and those guys saw what I’ve seen forever from the kid. He can play the point guard, 2, 3, 4, and he’s strong enough to defend all of them. His evolution has been like it’s always been. He gets better. He learns. He’s coachable. He’s a big-moment guy.
“I’m so glad they locked him in. I know they’re going to want to lock him into a five-year deal after this one ends.”
As Ron toiled, Dylan saw that, too. And as the younger Harper rose to the top of the high school recruiting charts, one of the highest-rated players in the nation, he chose to spend his one college season at Rutgers. Just like his brother.
“Me and Dylan have a great relationship, and it’s always been like that,” Ron said. “We are inseparable around each other, working out, hanging out, it’s always been me and Dylan ever since he’s been a kid. As we get older, we get closer even though we’re further away. That’s the beautiful thing about brotherhood. On our darkest days or best days, we are always there to provide support and have each other’s backs.”
They faced each other as pros for the first time this season, back in March when the Spurs beat the Celtics in San Antonio. But Ron’s career-high 22 points off the bench bested his brother by 13. Games like that are what speak to the future that Stevens and Mazzulla can see for Ron. He may not explode on your scene, but he knows how to stick. The more you know him, the better he gets.
“He is my Crock-Pot,” Maria said. “Anyone who sees all the good ingredients Ronald has and takes the time to look at that pot, watches it simmer, they come out with the best-tasting dish they ever had. That’s what the Celtics have done. They recognize who this kid is today and what he can be tomorrow. They invested in him, and he felt that. Boston is where he wanted to be, where he chose to be after getting waived by the Pistons. He’s starting to blossom. The difference with Dylan, he’s a little bit of a microwave, so to speak.”
Meet the Harpers: brothers in arms, ready to cook.
Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at tara.sullivan@globe.com. Follow her @Globe_Tara.
