Brian Robb: Chris Paul called Jayson Tatum to ask him to be a part of negotiations with the NBPA heading into restart, according to Tatum.
Boston Celtics Rumors
Chris Grenham: Jayson Tatum says he’s excited to see everyone and their new haircuts. “Just being around those guys again and sharing the floor.”
Brian Robb: Jayson Tatum on reports regarding him sitting out due to max extension: “I saw there were reports out there saying I wasn’t going to play because of my contract. I never talked to anyone about that…that would be insensitive for me to be worrying about that during this time.”
Chris Forsberg: Jayson Tatum said the league’s insurance policy “didn’t really affect — in a good or bad way — my decision [to go to Orlando].” Said injury risk didn’t really factor into his decision, it was mostly family concerns that left him leery.
Once the NBA resumes its season in a controlled environment, players will have more to worry about than winning. They will have varying concerns about how the resumed season could affect their mental health. Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward will be away from his pregnant wife, Robyn, and children until she is due to give birth sometime in September. “It’s definitely a stressful time for us,” said Hayward, whose wife and children are moving to Indianapolis to be near family while he is with the Celtics as part of the NBA’s 2019-20 restart at the ESPN Disney Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando.
Speaking on a separate call Monday, Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown had a few other suggestions that he wished the league would have allowed players to use. “There’s a lot of stuff. I know everybody has different reasons they’re playing for. … Four hundred and fifty guys, or however many will be there, are sending in whatever they feel like would add to that list and encompass the group that’s going down there,” Brown said. “What I’d like to personally see on there? Maybe ‘Break the Cycle,’ putting that on the back of your jersey. ‘Results,’ that’s what everybody is really playing for. ‘Inequality by Design,’ maybe. Things like that might have a deeper impact than some of the things that were given to us. I think it was a little bit limiting.”
Speaking on a separate call Monday, Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown had a few other suggestions that he wished the league would have allowed players to use. “There’s a lot of stuff. I know everybody has different reasons they’re playing for. … Four hundred and fifty guys, or however many will be there, are sending in whatever they feel like would add to that list and encompass the group that’s going down there,” Brown said. “What I’d like to personally see on there? Maybe ‘Break the Cycle,’ putting that on the back of your jersey. ‘Results,’ that’s what everybody is really playing for. ‘Inequality by Design,’ maybe. Things like that might have a deeper impact than some of the things that were given to us. I think it was a little bit limiting.”
Bill Russell: In December of 1956, already two months into the season because I was competing in the Olympics, I began my career as a Boston Celtic. The team had had a Black player before me, Chuck Cooper, but when I arrived, I was the only Black person on a team of white guys. The Boston Celtics proved to be an organization of good people––from Walter Brown to Red Auerbach, to most of my teammates. I cannot say the same about the fans or the city. During games people yelled hateful, indecent things: “Go back to Africa,” “Baboon,” “Coon,” “Nigger.” I used their unkindness as energy to fuel me, to work myself into a rage, a rage I used to win.
Bill Russell: The Celtics also ran a poll asking fans how they could increase attendance. More than 50 percent of the fans polled answered, “Have fewer Black guys on the team.” I refused to let the “fans’” bigotry, evidence of their lack of character, harm me. As far as I was concerned, I played for the Boston Celtics, the institution, and the Boston Celtics, my teammates. I did not play for the city or for the fans.
Bill Russell: In the 1960s, I tried to move to Wilmington, MA, but nobody would sell me a house. So, I moved my family to Reading, a predominantly white town 16 miles north of Boston. Bigots broke into the house, spray-painted “Nigga” on the walls, shit in our bed. Police cars followed me often. I looked into buying a different house in a different neighborhood, but people in that neighborhood started a petition to persuade the seller not to sell to me. Around this same time Medgar Evars was murdered by the KKK. His brother, Charlie, asked me if I would do a series of integrated basketball clinics for children, which I did. I marched in Washington, supported Ali. After that, the death threats started coming. I said then that I wasn’t scared of the kind of men who come in the dark of night. The fact is, I’ve never found fear to be useful.
“For me, I can speak for myself better than anybody, I want to make that clear: I didn’t want to go to Orlando,” Brown said Monday in a conference call with reporters. “Like, I had apprehensions not just because of social justice, but COVID-related, and had some family issues, as well. But, once I thought about the opportunity that the organization and the NBA presented to play for something bigger than myself, I would have signed up right away. “I plan on using my voice when I’m down there. I plan on inspiring and spreading light on things that are getting dimmed, and hopefully the NBA and our organization can understand.”
“The more the NBA understands that, the better everybody will feel about it, especially players. So I feel that us going down there and making sure nobody gets distracted is part of the initial correspondence. We have to go down there and make sure that people don’t forget about George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or Philando Castile or Ahmaud Arbery or Trayvon Martin, which is in the Orlando area. And the list goes on, and the countless other people who were not caught on video who experienced something similar. “The bottom line is there’s improvements that need to be made and the NBA has a great voice and a lot of resources and a lot of influence and we are appreciative they are helping in aiding in a lot of the things we care about. So that’s really important.”
Chris Grenham: Jaylen Brown: “I didn’t want to go to Orlando. I had apprehensions.” Added once he thought about the opportunity to play for something bigger than himself, he changed his mind.
Brian Robb: Jaylen Brown on Celtics players deciding to opt in: “It was a lack of information that was being shared. A lot of us around the league felt like we didn’t have any information. Once we found out (the info), a lot of guys came around on making their decision, including myself.”
Jared Weiss: Jaylen Brown on jersey messages: “I would like to see more options available to put on the bask of our jersey… For issues and causes such as now, I think that list is an example of a form of limitations… I was very disappointed in the list.”
Jared Weiss: Jaylen Brown says he has been dealing with family issues lately, but when he is in Orlando he will continue to lead the fight for social justice. “A lot of our guys are choosing to go down to Orlando because we are playing for something bigger than ourselves.”
RAY: Your team had a run of great seasons but never won a championship. I think your last five seasons, the Bucks finished first in the conference. You had a great collection of players, including the ones who came in the trade for Kareem. Marques Johnson: Yeah, we had it going on. We started out green and kept growing. The only problem was that we either had to go through the Boston Celtics with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish (and later Dennis Johnson) and that crew, or the Philadelphia 76ers and Dr. J., Bobby Jones, Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney, aka. the Boston Strangler. The year that we were really primed to make a championship run, the Sixers had picked up Moses Malone in the offseason.
Enes Kanter: Kurdish people have been discriminated,oppressed & persecuted through out history Human Rights are every Human being’s Right All the people including Kurdish people have an equal right to freedom! Kurds have their right to live free! I stand with Kurds #KurdishLivesMatter ✊
Jared Sullinger wants back in the NBA
On Saturday, The Basketball Tournament kicked off and Jared Sullinger was on the sideline for Carmen’s Crew. He was the coach of the team filled mostly with Ohio State alumni. It’s a role he relishes. Yet it’s not a role he wants to assume permanently. Sullinger, the Celtics’ first-round pick in 2012 who enjoyed four solid seasons with the club, still has aspirations of returning to the NBA. He’s only 28 but hasn’t played in the league in three years. His post-Celtic career lasted just 11 games with the Raptors, and then Sullinger learned about the harsh reality of being injured and considered damaged goods.
He has recovered fully. Sullinger is married and the father of twins. He reflects on his Celtics years fondly but hopes he’s not done gobbling up rebounds with his burly frame. “I want to play and, of course, the NBA is the ultimate goal,” he said. “The last two years I just felt like I had to find myself. I had to find something that drives me and makes me want to play. In the NBA, you kind of get lost in the shuffle because you have so many games, and when I got out there in [the Chinese Basketball Association] it was kind of a retreat for Jared Sullinger to learn himself and fall in love with the game again.”
In an appearance on an ESPN video with Ros Gold-Onwude, Brown revealed Garnett left a voicemail for him when he was a rookie in Boston in 2017. The former Celtics big man, who was out of the league at this point, spotted Brown looking down at one point in the season. Garnett didn’t mince words when it came to his opinion on Brown’s body language. “I was at the end of the bench with my head down, and he sent a voice message through my strength coach over the phone like, ‘You better pick your [expletive] head up,’ ” Brown said with a smile. “He was cursing me out. He was like, ‘You’ve got to carry yourself a certain way.’ So he told me to pick my head up and fix my body language, right the [expletive] now.”
Brown said Garnett’s speech on that occasion was probably “the most OG message you will ever hear in your entire life.” “I remember him saying, ‘There’s two ways you can go. Either you can go backward or go forward. I feel everybody’s emotions. Channel it out there and hit them in the mouth.’”
In an appearance on an ESPN video with Ros Gold-Onwude, Brown revealed Garnett left a voicemail for him when he was a rookie in Boston in 2017. The former Celtics big man, who was out of the league at this point, spotted Brown looking down at one point in the season. Garnett didn’t mince words when it came to his opinion on Brown’s body language. “I was at the end of the bench with my head down, and he sent a voice message through my strength coach over the phone like, ‘You better pick your [expletive] head up,’ ” Brown said with a smile. “He was cursing me out. He was like, ‘You’ve got to carry yourself a certain way.’ So he told me to pick my head up and fix my body language, right the [expletive] now.”
Brown said Garnett’s speech on that occasion was probably “the most OG message you will ever hear in your entire life.” “I remember him saying, ‘There’s two ways you can go. Either you can go backward or go forward. I feel everybody’s emotions. Channel it out there and hit them in the mouth.’”
Celtics forward Gordon Hayward says he will leave the NBA’s bubble at Walt Disney World Resort for the birth of his fourth child if Boston is still playing. “There’ll be a time if and when we’re down there and she’s going to have the baby, I’m for sure going to be with her,” Hayward said of his wife, Robyn. “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there.”
Robyn Hayward is due to give birth in September. With the Eastern Conference semifinals scheduled to begin no later than Aug. 30, and the East finals scheduled to begin no later than Sept. 15, Gordon Hayward would have to spend several days, at a minimum, away from his teammates during the playoffs.
“It’s a pretty easy decision for me on that,” Hayward said. “I’ve been at the birth of every one of my children, and I think there are more important things in life. So we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. “I know the NBA has a protocol for that type of thing, and hopefully I can do the quarantining and testing the appropriate amount of time and then be back with the boys.”
Hayward is right, as the NBA has built-in protocols for approved absences such as this — along with other instances, such as a death in the family — that require a player or staff member to leave the bubble. Under those circumstances, if a player leaves for fewer than seven days and tests negative on each day that he is not inside the bubble, he would have to quarantine for four days upon returning. Any player who leaves the bubble without approval will be subject to a minimum quarantine of 10 days.
While players that elect to leave the Orlando bubble without permission would be subject to 10 days of quarantining and two negative tests before they are cleared to return to play, that won’t necessarily be the case for Hayward. He will get permission for departure from the NBA to leave the bubble for such a momentous family occasion. According to a league source, assuming he follows a very specific protocol in regards to travel and his personal interactions from league doctors when he is away, his quarantine period will be far less than 10 days. NBA protocol indicates Hayward would need to be in isolation for as few as four days upon returning to the bubble before being cleared to rejoin the Celtics (assuming he tests negative during quarantine during that time).
Chris Grenham: Important Jayson Tatum golf update: he’s driving the ball 340 yards.
While players that elect to leave the Orlando bubble without permission would be subject to 10 days of quarantining and two negative tests before they are cleared to return to play, that won’t necessarily be the case for Hayward. He will get permission for departure from the NBA to leave the bubble for such a momentous family occasion. According to a league source, assuming he follows a very specific protocol in regards to travel and his personal interactions from league doctors when he is away, his quarantine period will be far less than 10 days. NBA protocol indicates Hayward would need to be in isolation for as few as four days upon returning to the bubble before being cleared to rejoin the Celtics (assuming he tests negative during quarantine during that time).
Chris Grenham: Important Jayson Tatum golf update: he’s driving the ball 340 yards.
John Karalis: Gordon Hayward says he will leave Orlando if the Celtics are still playing and his wife gives birth. She is due in September, which means it’s possible he’d leave the team during a playoff run, but he says it’s an easy decision for him
A. Sherrod Blakely: Gordon Hayward said his left foot still gets sore sometimes, adding that he thinks it’s associated with the gruesome foot injury he suffered at the start of the 2017 season, his first in Boston.
Enes Kanter: The whole world knows what I stand for This is what I will be putting on the back of my jersey during rest of the @NBA season My jersey will represent the people & countries through out the ‘WHOLE WORLD’ who are fighting for their rights & their freedom Never Give Up @CNN
Jay King: Enes Kanter said he may put “freedom” on the back of his jersey. “The problems are happening all over the world. That freedom represents the people fighting for their rights.”
Chris Grenham: Enes Kanter: “Even if the season doesn’t continue, we should give the MVP to Adam Silver.”
A. Sherrod Blakely: The only #Celtics player who has tested positive for the coronavirus was Marcus Smart (one of the NBA’s first to test positive), according to Daniel Theis.
Chris Forsberg: Daniel Theis on having to leave family to play in Orlando: “It’s my job. … I want to win. Obviously, it’s going to be hard for me to leave … especially with my daughter. She’s 4 now, we’re so close.” Said he didn’t give much thought to not going to bubble.
Jay King: Daniel Theis said the Celtics look good, like they used the time off wisely. “They look great. Especially (Jayson Tatum). He walked in the first day and couldn’t miss a shot.”
On a recent video interview with ESPN’s Ros Gold-Onwude, Brown said Garnett gave him some advice as a rookie when he saw Brown hanging his head at the end of the bench. “I was at the end of the bench with my head down, and he sent a voice message through my strength coach over the phone like, ‘You better pick your mother(expletive) head up,‘” Brown said, smiling. “He was cursing me out. He was like, ‘You’ve got to carry yourself a certain way.’ So he told me to pick my head up and fix my body language, right the (expletive) now.”
Brown said Garnett’s intensity inspires him, even though he doesn’t always embody it at this point. “(He’s) somebody I’m chasing here in Boston, he was the last person to win a championship,” Brown said. “That’s something I would like to do while I’m here with the Celtics. I’m definitely inspired by Kevin Garnett. I think we’re totally two different people, we play two different positions, but I would like to model my approach after his, and hopefully we will down the road be looked at as similar.”
