Robert Williams is ready to work as Celtic career begins

Robert Williams has only been in Boston for a few days but the rookie big man seems to be making a pretty strong impression already around the Celtics facilities.

The 20-year-old was officially introduced to the media in person on Friday morning at the Auerbach Center in Allston and shared his first impressions about joining the Celtics.

"It’s a big blessing," Williams explained. "My first thoughts was my dad was gonna be mad. He’s a die-hard Kobe fan, but he had to transition over. So it’s cool. But just knowing the community, knowing the coaching staff, my teammates, knowing who I’ll be around, and just the wisdom and energy I’ll be receiving."

The overriding theme of the first press conference was the culture of hard work that Williams will be entering into as he tries to make an impact on a contending team. The Texas A&M product seemed to realize right away what will earn him respect in the region.

"Boston is a place that loves hard work, and athletes who get it done," he said. "The city gets behind players with hard work, dedication."

That premise seems to be sticking with Williams already as Brad Stevens credited him for his work ethic as he prepares for the start of Celtics summer league next week.

"There’s a number of obvious transferable skills right now in Robert’s game," Stevens explained. "Then there’s things that he has to continue to improve and manage, and early returns over the last few days that he’s been here is that he’s excited about that. I’ll let him answer that more, but he’s been in the gym every day. He got a workout in this morning at 6:30 a.m., but I think he’s excited to get started like a lot of our young guys are."

Danny Ainge also went to bat for his new addition to downplay criticisms about the inconsistent "motor" that Williams has played with over his two collegiate seasons.

"It's hard to have a low motor and be defensive player of the year for two years in a row in a tough conference,' he said of Williams. "I've heard the same types of criticism but that's a hard thing to do as a young vet."

A few other highlights from the presser:

On the reason he went back to school for his sophomore season: "That was working on maturity, on and off the floor. A lot of the decision making came from my family helping me too. My mom was a big part of it. She felt like I needed to mature more, even if I didn't feel like that. Just talking and sitting with him, coming down to the decision, that's what we made."

On learning from Al Horford: "Actually met him when I got here two days ago and had a good conversation with him. What’s most interesting about his game is Al doesn’t rush. He takes his time. Just studying his game from dribble hand-offs to coming off screens and attacking. That will help me prepare myself."

On watching the Celtics in the playoffs: "Like I said in the beginning, it's a great thing coming into a team that is competing to be in the Finals. I feel like it's a blessing, I feel like they gave it their all with hard work, and the fans and city being behind them makes it ten times better. Like I said, I felt like I fell to a great place."

On skipping the combine: “The agency I was with before I signed with Duffy, they just weren’t the right agents for me. Some of the advice they were giving me I would say wasn’t necessarily the best. So I just felt like in order to get where I am now, I had to change (representation). So that’s when I signed with Bill Duffy and BDA Sports.”

Williams will make his Celtics summer league debut on Friday night in Las Vegas against the Sixers.