Xavier Tillman participated in unveiling of a renovated basketball court at the Salvation Army in Boston

“Listen, listen,” Xavier Tillman told a gymnasium full of kids. “Make or miss, we’re going to cheer after this shot.”

The flock of elementary school students nodded in understanding — after all, it was the day’s esteemed guest who was making this directive, at the conclusion of a very memorable afternoon at The Salvation Army community center in the South End.

On Tuesday, the Celtics and Dunkin’ Donuts jointly unveiled a newly-renovated basketball court, which had long been a critical need for the center.

Xavier Tillman, attending his second community event in six weeks as a Celtic, was the life of the party all afternoon, participating in musical dribbling drills, teaching form shooting, dancing with kids, and helping to referee a slew of contests. The last item on the agenda was a singular jump-shot, which one particularly-confident kid volunteered to attempt. The rest of the kids crowded around the shooter, and for a brief moment, the gym silenced.

Nothing but net.

A frenzy broke out in the gymnasium, and only intensified moments later, when Tillman handed the lucky shotmaker a pair of free Celtics tickets. More celebration ensued.

“It’s pretty surreal,” Tillman said of the experience. “He was so excited. I don’t know, it kind of brings you down to earth and lets you have perspective on why we do what we do every day, and why we have to come to work with a great mentality — because you just never know who’s watching.”

On this particular day, Tillman hung out with dozens of kids – including a few of his own. it was his second community event since being traded to Boston on February 7th — just a few weeks ago, he played cards, checkers and chess with senior citizens at a watch party replaying Game 7 of the 1962 Finals.

His takeaway from both community events was resounding: the people of Boston love the Celtics.

“It doesn’t matter the demographic,” Tillman said. “If you’re in Boston, if you’re in Massachusetts, everybody loves the Celtics.”

The recreational space, equipped with six brand-new hoops, provides Boston youth the opportunity to get play basketball, socialize, and deepen relationships.

“That’s almost everything, I feel like,” Tillman said. “Just to give kids an opportunity not to be on their iPads, or on their phones all day, but to be active and to not only compete, have camaraderie with their classmates, peers their age. It goes a long way to building relationships.”

Tillman has spent a portion of these past six weeks on the road, but he’s settling into the city, and figuring out driving in a major city like Boston, which has been one of the bigger adjustments: “I’m getting used to driving in all tunnels and stuff like that, not missing any exits and whatnots. Lot of one-ways, lot of potholes.”

He’s no longer living in a hotel, and his wife and three kids have made the move to Boston over from Memphis. He even brought his own kids to the Salvation Army event, and they participated in dribbling drills and even joined him for his post-event media obligations.

“My kids don’t need to be on their iPads either,” he said, laughing. “They need to be out and about, they need to be meeting new people. They actually love to be active, so I love to take them to anything like this where they can run around.”

In addition to acclimating to Boston, Tillman has been a pretty seamless fit on the court as well. He wasn’t in the rotation in the early weeks while he learned the team’s offensive and defensive schemes, but he’s gotten more run as of late — an opportunity that coincided with Kristaps Porzingis missing five games with a hamstring strain.

“I’m feeling good, especially defensively — getting a sense of our schemes and how we like to guard,” he said. “A lot of it is playing towards my strengths, allowing me to switch a lot more, use my voice on defense as well.”

He’s loved playing for Joe Mazzulla, who called him after the trade and urged him to embrace being himself in Boston.

“He’s very authentic, he’s very himself. I remember when we had our first phone call, it was the first thing he told me was, ‘don’t be weird,’ and I loved it,” Tillman said. “What he meant by it was, whoever you are, whoever you want to be perceived as, be that. You don’t have to feel forced to try to fit in; just be who you are and let that work. And I’ve been following that, and it’s been awesome.”

On Tuesday afternoon, being himself meant that from the moment he walked into the gym, he was the most exciting person in the room. It meant that his presence alone turned something as simple as a sunk mid-range shot into a memory that would last a lifetime.