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Luke Kornet made his return to TD Garden with a beanie on alongside a nondescript long-sleeve shirt and jeans. He sat in the second row behind the basket after sneaking in several minutes into the Celtics-Raptors game earlier this month. During timeouts, he greeted former teammates and eventually moved up to row one at the behest of Wyc Grousbeck.
That, as much as the eight points and eight rebounds he provided in his on-court appearance the following night, reflected the Kornet experience in Boston. A bit off-kilter yet effective. The Kornet Kontest, odd-ball humor and a unique sense of style marked his Celtics tenure as much if not more than his pick-and-roll prowess, rebounding and shot-blocking that all steadily improved across five years with the franchise. Even that tenure didn't progress in linear fashion. Kornet spent nearly an entire year in the G-League without an NBA contract in 2021-22 after Boston acquired him the previous season. After three successful years and a small role in the 2024 championship run, he earned a four-year contract with the Spurs this summer.
"Ultimately, it was between San Antonio and Boston," Kornet said. "Honestly, just a lot of conversations with my wife and a lot of prayer and ... realization of where we are in life. It was very, very difficult to leave and a lot of relationships, but feeling like you're in a different part of life and being open to where God willed us and I think that's where it took us. You sort of accept it and take that step forward and keep figuring it out from there."
Kornet's return marked the first in a run of them by former Celtics champions this month. Jrue Holiday and the Blazers visit on Monday before Kristaps Porziņģis' Hawks play at the Garden on Wednesday. Both have struggled immensely with injury and illness, respectively, to stay on the court with their new teams but have worked back over the past week or two toward appearances that'll draw an undoubtedly raucous reaction given their contributions to 2024. Yet despite the pessimistic outlook over their departures, alongside Al Horford signing with the Warriors and leaving uncertainty in the front court and Jayson Tatum's Achilles injury, the Celtics sit second in the East -- in a better position than all of their departing players aside from Kornet.
They have found front-court options. Derrick White and Payton Pritchard stepped up as starters, and Brown emerged as a First Team All-NBA caliber force in place of the missing former players.
"The energy and force and movement and chaos that they're playing with," Kornet said. "I feel like they got a lot of the younger wings playing and stuff, which is a lot of energy in that respect. I feel like everyone is picking up more of the load offensively. It's been cool to see and they play fast and free and aggressive and I think a lot more reacting live and stuff, obviously there are a lot of smart players here, so the ability to do that. Obviously, Jaylen's been incredible and everyone's assumed a larger role, Neemy's been awesome, so it's been cool to see everyone take that next step for themselves and the team."
The Celtics made a concerted effort to retain Kornet, who earned $24 million guaranteed out of a $40.7 million deal that runs through his age-33 season. He also earned the opportunity to play a significant role alongside Victor Wembanyama, who he closed with against the Celtics earlier this month, replaced in the starting lineup during Wembanyama's absence with a calf injury and helped stagger back into the starting unit by starting in front of upon his return. Kornet's averaging 8.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists with 1.3 blocks per game on 66.7% shooting, continuing his strides from Boston while quickly becoming a fan favorite.
Spurs fans labeled Kornet and Wembanyama's combination as French Vanilla. Kornet's lightning-bolt, Usain Bolt celebration following his game-winning block against the Magic early this season became a t-shirt and a move that fans mimicked whenever he reached the free throw line through the following weeks at home. San Antonio reached the NBA Cup final, losing 124-113 in a game Kornet started and contributed 14 points to, a step in that young team's progression. A win over the Thunder to reach the championship marked one of three straight wins over the defending champions as the Spurs became their Kryptonite. In some respects, Kornet did the reverse Derrick White, who left San Antonio as the Spurs began rebuilding to solidify the emerging Celtics after developing through their system. White and others with the Celtics wish they could've retained him, but his family helped Kornet's acclimate to the area -- which was already close to where Kornet grew up.
"(He's) a guy that doesn't care about anything but being a good teammate and does all the dirty work, all the things needed to be able to win and he's continued to do that even with San Antonio," White told Boston Sports Journal earlier this month. "Unbelievable person, unbelievable guy that you want to hang around and tried to make everyone laugh, everyone smile and have a good time. He's got all those funny celebrations, the Kornet Kontest and there were just so many things that he did."
Kornet directly became a Celtic again in 2022 due to the White trade, which involved emptying multiple roster spots by sending Josh Richardson and Romeo Langford to San Antonio after sending Enes Freedom and Dennis Schröder to Houston. The Celtics had signed him to a G-League contract following his acquisition as a throw-in at the trade deadline when they salary-dumped Daniel Theis to Chicago. Moe Wagner and Kornet arrived together in the deal as a relative toss-up to stay with the team through the end of the year. Boston waived Wagner after a few strong showings by Kornet, who head coach Brad Stevens exclaimed at the time the team had long had an eye on. That comment was one of the first signals of what was happening behind the scenes late during the 2021 season, Danny Ainge deciding to retire from Boston's front office while ownership and Stevens agreed to a move to the president role where he would select a new coach.
Yet Kornet didn't crack the
