Celtics head basketball Brad Stevens couldn’t hide his smile after watching just one practice with Jrue Holiday on the team.
BOSTON — Brad Stevens, the typically serious basketball boss of the Boston Celticscouldn’t hide his smile after watching just one practice with Jrue Holiday in the team.
“We made a thousand mistakes. But you can also see there’s something that’s there,” Stevens said in an introductory news conference Wednesday, three days after the Celtics acquired Holiday in a trade. “There is unity. There is emotion. There is joy, competitiveness.
“And I think he brings it as well as anyone,” Stevens said. “I just think that’s contagious.”
Jrue Holiday poses during the Celtics’ media day prior to the start of their training camp. Photo: Getty
The Celtics acquired Jrue Holiday Sunday from Portland, where he had been sent as part of the trade that moved Damian Lillard to Milwaukee. The deal was finalized on Sunday, the night before he opened training camp, and Jrue Holiday He didn’t attend Tuesday’s practice and watched.
A day later, with the Hall of Fame member of the CelticsPaul Pierce, as spectator, Jrue Holiday He joined his new teammates at their practice facility and set a tone that the team hopes will result in a championship.
“Today there was only electricity in the gym,” said co-owner Steve Pagliuca. “Paul Pierce turned to us and said he had never seen an NBA practice in his entire career that was so hard, so fast and for so long.”
Although they are tied with the Los Angeles Lakers (and Minneapolis) with 17 championships, the best mark in the NBA, it has been 15 years since the Celtics They hung their last banner at the TD Garden. They have reached the Eastern Conference finals five times in the last seven seasons (reaching Game 6 of the NBA Finals two years ago), but seemed no closer to another title.
Then, in the midst of an offseason turmoil, Stevens traded point guard and defensive star Marcus Smart for Kristaps Porzingis, gaining an All-Star big man but giving up the player who was the emotional heart of the team.
Con Jrue Holiday, they believe they have filled that void. He cost them point guard Malcolm Brogdon, the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year, and forward Robert Williams III along with two first-round draft picks, but Holiday se une a los All-Stars Jayson Tatum y Jaylen Brown.
“We’re adding everyone we can that adds character, commitment and extreme talent. Unfortunately, we’re also letting some of those guys go,” said co-owner Wyc Grousbeck. “We’re doing absolutely everything we can. But if you own the Celtics, that’s what you do. Or you make way for someone else.”
Jrue Holiday He began his career in Philadelphia, spent the next seven years in New Orleans and then moved to Milwaukee in 2020-21, joining Giannis Antetokounmpo in winning an NBA title in his first season there. The following year, the Bucks lost to Boston in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals and Holiday noticed something about the city and its fans.
“The fans are literally crazy and I’m proud to be a part of that,” he said. Jrue Holiday, who grew up in Los Angeles as a Lakers fan. “I know a lot of my family members are probably hurt, but I know this is a blue-collar town. They love people who work hard and put their hearts into it. And that’s the kind of person I am, I always take the court “I give it my all.”
That was also a hallmark of Smart’s career in Boston. The three-time All-Defensive Team member and 2022 Defensive Player of the Year was beloved in Boston, more for his effort than as an offensive threat who averaged 11.5 points and 6.3 assists last season.
Holiday averaged 19.3 points, 7.4 assists and 5.1 rebounds last year, matching Smart’s 1.5 steals. Grousbeck made sure to point out that in addition to his two All-Star selections and his five appearances on the all-defensive team, Holiday has won the NBA Teammate of the Year award three times.
He is also under contract for two more seasons, but Stevens said they will begin talking about an extension as soon as they are allowed to. The deal put Boston above the new salary cap that comes with increased penalties for big-spending teams.
“We haven’t blinked at all,” said Grousbeck, who was part of the homeowners committee that worked on the restrictions. “I’m aware of all that. We’ll be on the second platform and we’ll pay those penalties. And that’s life.
“It’s designed so we can have more competition. We’re fine with competition,” he said, “as long as we win.”
2023-10-05 21:10:58
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