SAN FRANCISCO -- A lot was said in the Boston Celtics media day in San Francisco. Here are some of the more interesting quotes, with some reaction afterwards.
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“I remember exactly where I was when LeBron blocked that shot. I remember exactly where I was when the Warriors won it for the first time. I was in college and I remember watching the game. I was going for the Warriors then, back in the day, because I'm a Draymond guy. …
“It's kind of funny to come into this arena, in the Chase Center, and play against a team that's still together with the success they've had.
“You acknowledge that, but at the same time I'm not a fan anymore. It's one of those things where you're just excited to compete against those guys and hopefully create those memories for some college kids that are coming up, and high school kids, where they can say that they remember the moment where you guys trumped the super team dynasty of the Warriors.” - Grant Williams on watching the Warriors when he was younger.
This really highlights how young these Celtics are. Golden State’s first championship came in 2015, seven years ago. Only two current Celtics were in the league back then: Marcus Smart (his rookie season) and Al Horford. Jayson Tatum was in high school (just like most of his teammates).
Steph Curry’s NBA debut was in 2009, only two years after Al Horford and we talk about Horford sometimes like it’s a miracle grandpa can set a screen without shattering a hip. Sure, Curry still looks like he always has in a lot of ways, but he’s not a kid anymore.
This is a series about youth vs. experience. Two teams that few expected to make it here, at least against each other. With vastly different backgrounds. It will be interesting to see which prevails.
“Yeah, bigger expectations, better expectations for me. I’ve got a great relationship with Coach Udoka. I'm one of those guys he can say stuff like that to.
“Playing against the Bucks, he looked at me one time and just told me, you've got to stop letting [expletive] run you over; you know what I'm saying? He knows I respond well when he challenges me like that.” - Robert Williams on tough coaching from Ime Udoka
The coach is one of the keys to this series. Can his cool, calm, yet forceful demeanor shine through in the highest of pressure situations?
We know what the Warriors are. We know they have no fear of the moment. Boston being able to match that would be huge, and it would come from the top.
Brad Stevens is a very good coach and he got the most out of his teams … up until the pandemic seasons (and Kyrie Irving), but Udoka is different. He has an edge to him that Stevens doesn’t, and that this team needed at this point. Stevens inspires while Udoka pushes (which is admittedly reductive because both also do the other thing). This team needed, and still needs very often, a push just like the one he gave to Williams.
“I think seven years in San Antonio and the foundation and the base of who I am as a coach and who I was as a player was beneficial, but to leave for those two years was probably just as much, if not more invaluable for my preparation to be a head coach, due to a lot of reasons. You know, some situations, obviously, in Philadelphia with winning on the line and getting fired after that; Brooklyn, an intense situation with a win-now mentality and superstar players. I think all that bode well for me going forward.
“San Antonio is a little bit of fairy tale, boy scouts, and do whatever you ask. I needed to get back to the real side of the NBA that I was in as a player. I think that helped me navigate some of the things earlier this year.” - Ime Udoka
That is such an under-appreciated element of Udoka’s development as a coach. People look at the Spurs as a model franchise, but Udoka is right about it being a fairy tale. Gregg Popovich has created this situation where everyone falls in line and they march lockstep with one another.
Udoka getting to experience the mess of the Sixers and the failure of the Nets showed him some of the grittier elements of the league from a coaching perspective.
I always cited those experiences as invaluable to him. More importantly, it says a lot about Udoka that he would seek out those experiences instead of just trying to bide his time and maybe take over for Pop in San Antonio.
He understood that he needed to leave to grow. That's not easy to admit for a person in an otherwise good situation.
“Coming back to the Celtics, I was just grateful. It's an opportunity to basically get another chance with the guys I played with for so many years. We have one goal, and now we are in the Finals and obviously have the chance to achieve this goal, what we have been having for the last four or five, even Smart, eight years he is with the Celtics.” - Daniel Theis
I said don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till its gone
Joni Mitchell never lies. Theis must be looking around at the madness of Chicago and Houston and thanking every available deity that he’s back in Boston with a chance at a ring.
The return of Theis was one of the two in-season moves (the Derrick White trade being the other) that proved critical for Boston for getting to this point. Theis was huge in the first round of the playoffs and, now that Boston is past the sumo wrestling stage of the playoffs, he might become important again.
A lot of that might depend on how effective and healthy Robert Williams is, but Theis is a nice option off the bench in this series.
“His leadership alone has been unbelievable. Obviously he's done great things on the court. I mean, his defense, him knocking down threes. But his leadership has been the biggest thing, just that veteran presence. That's gone a long way.” - Payton Pritchard on Al Horford
Maybe Stevens’ biggest move, which we didn’t realize at the time. Horford’s leadership and mentorship has been critical for a lot of young players on this team. As anyone about Horford and you’ll get a glowing quote.
“When I got the call from Brad, it was really, really exciting. I remember I was driving home with my family from visiting my mom in Atlanta, and we got the call. We're just all screaming in the car, just really, really excited, really, really grateful. Right away we're just making plans about heading back to Boston, doing the physical, doing all this stuff.
“It was a really happy time for my family at that time. Especially for me, because it's where I wanted to be.” - Al Horford
Speaking of thanking deities for returning to Boston, Horford hit the freakin’ lottery a year ago.
Yes, he took money to run to Philadelphia, but that was a ridiculous amount of money that no one was offering him. The Kyrie situation was also coming to a head, and so Horford left.
Steve Bulpett, then of the Boston Herald, went to Philadelphia after Horford signed there but before the Kemba Walker sign and trade. Asked if he would have stayed if he knew Walker was coming, he said “I don’t want to get caught up in the past … but, yeah, that would have been totally different.”
Well, now it’s different. Philadelphia was a disaster (which says more about them than him, because he’s been awesome everywhere else), and he escaped OKC when he and Walker were swapped a year ago. He’s found new life here in Boston, and is one of the keys to winning this series. Horford has been great all year, and with some extra rest before and in between games in this series, Horford can squeeze seven more gems out of those old knees.
“That's a great comparison. It's an honor to be compared to a guy of Draymond's caliber, a champion, great leader, great defender. He does what he does very well. I like to look at myself as that way. I definitely take some notes from Draymond, the way he leads and the way that he plays the game.” - Marcus Smart, on Steve Kerr calling him a guard version of Draymond Green on defense.
It’s easy to be annoyed by Green, just like it’s easy to be annoyed by Smart, but both of those guys are singularly focused on doing whatever it takes to win a basketball game. Whatever they're doing out there, even if you think it’s misguided, is with the singular goal of winning in mind.
These two are going to be X-factors in every game they play. Which of them pushes their team that extra inch necessary to make the winning play could be the difference in this series.
“I will always have unwavering faith even in the midst of situations that look like things are about to go in a direction that nobody wants to go in. I will always have faith in this group and in this organization and in myself that we'll be alright.
“In those moments where we lost, I knew that we had so much to learn and that I had so much to learn. If anything, it was more encouraging to learn from my mistakes and get better for the next year. I didn't have any time to question myself or question what was in front of me because my belief was so strong.
“Early in my career -- I'm five, six years in -- I haven't done too much questioning about anything, really.” - Jaylen Brown
To be fair to Brown, he sat there in the midst of mediocrity and promised the Celtics would figure things out.
They did. But Brown is still learning and growing, and that's an important element to all of this. He’s still only 25, years away from his physical prime and still trying to piece together who he is as a person. Hell, I’m almost 49 and I’m still trying to figure some of that out, but that's the NBA. An NBA career is basically an entire lifetime compressed into 10-15 years (if you’re lucky).
Brown’s lessons will all come to a head here in this series. If he’s truly not questioning and simply learning, then he needs to take the lessons of the last series with him and learn how to get to the basket while protecting the ball.
He is a critical player for Boston, and it will take an All-Star performance from him to get this championship.
“Beginning of this year, every game was like, I don't know if we're going to win. It was a lot tougher than it should be, and that's something I wasn't used to. ... I'll be honest, for myself, there have been times where I questioned, am I the right person to kind of lead a group like this. You know, never like, doubted myself, but just moments after some of those losses and the tougher parts of the season. That's human nature to kind of question yourself and things like that. But just always stick to what you believe in and trust in the work that you've put in. You know, it can't rain forever.” - Jayson Tatum
This is the most relatable Tatum has ever been.
We’ve all had these moments, right? Something doesn’t go right, you have a rough stretch, and you wonder “WTF am I even doing here?”
I’ll admit that I have those feelings a lot of times myself. Tatum is right. It’s just human nature.
Now he’s here, and maybe this is the validation that he needs to get him to another level. Maybe this will be one of those classic explosions like we’ve seen after All-Star selections and other awards.
They’ll need that from him. The best player in the series often pushes his team to win that series. Tatum can be that. They need him to be that.