BOSTON — It’s amazing what an NBA championship can do for morale.
Two years ago, when the Celtics gathered at the Auerbach Center for a somber media day, they introduced a first-time head coach to a team reeling from news of his predecessor’s misdeeds.
This offseason brought with it its own set of unique circumstances, as they all do. Kristaps Porziņģis underwent surgery for a rare ankle injury. Jaylen Brown was left off the Olympic team. Jayson Tatum was on the roster but was benched twice in Paris. The team’s ownership group announced its intention to sell the franchise.
And let’s just say the atmosphere was a little different this time.
“I don’t want to state the obvious,” Brown said, “but we won a championship.
“It was a blessing.”
Let’s make no mistake: the Olympic Games were a stuff for Boston’s two best players.
Brown, who was left off the U.S. team, suggested Nike shared responsibility for her absence from the roster. Brown took the podium in custom black sneakers, which she planned to officially unveil later Tuesday, and promised to showcase “all the expertise that is going on in the sneaker market” in the future.
As for the Olympics, Brown said only: “I’m extremely motivated for obvious reasons.”
Tatum was named to Steve Kerr’s team, but played only a few minutes during his run to a second gold medal. He, too, said the situation would motivate him a bit.
“I guess you could say that if you want to simplify it,” Tatum said. “It was tough, actually. I talked to Joe (Mazzulla) a lot and he was probably the happiest person in the world because I didn’t win Finals MVP and I didn’t play in two of the Olympics games. If you know Joe, it makes sense. Did I need any extra motivation to get into the season? No. I’m not going to give anyone any credit for getting me motivated to get into the season. It was a unique circumstance, something I hadn’t experienced before in my playing career, but I think everything happens for a reason.”
In the end, though, “if you’re going to have extrinsic motivation, that’s going to wear off and you’re going to be exposed to your external motivation relatively quickly,” said Mazzulla, the third-year coach who, along with Boston’s front office, spent the offseason pondering this question: Now that they’ve won the championship, how do they keep someone else hungry? Ultimately, each player must answer that question for himself.
“Everything you embraced last season and everything you say you do is going to be tested at a higher level,” said Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, who cited human nature as an opponent this season, “and if you truly do that, then you rise even higher.”
Tatum, for his part, believes that this is the case.
“It was never just about trying to win a championship,” the four-time All-NBA selection said. “Now, you get to be in the same room with other great Celtics teams, with other great players. All the guys I looked up to growing up won at least one championship, so now it’s just a conversation of: How great are you trying to be? What room or what level are you trying to be mentioned in when it’s all said and done?”
Not even the sale of the team, which for better or worse will alter the team’s finances, potentially impacting the roster-building process in its extremely expensive near future, could cloud the team’s prospects.
“Obviously, we’ve put a team together,” Stevens said. “This has been a long-term plan to get to where we are now. Plans don’t always go the way you want them to. This one so far has been pretty straightforward. There are always going to be challenges that come up. The way (the owners) have expressed it to me since the sale was announced was, ‘We just need to keep doing what we’re doing. Do things the same way we always do and do what we can to build the best team we can, and then we’ll see what happens from there.'”
The team they’ve assembled is once again the title favorite and largely the same as last season, save for the additions of veteran Lonnie Walker IV and rookie Baylor Scheierman. They’ll be without the injured Porziņģis until what was projected to be December, but even that brings good news.
“I don’t know if we’re interested in putting a timeline on it,” said Stevens, who is entering his fourth season as the front office manager, “because the injury is unique, but as far as how he feels and the progress he’s made, I’d say we’re very, very happy with where he’s at, and maybe a little surprised.”
It was important to Stevens to keep this group together. Because of the chemistry that exists between them, he believes in their ability to do what the last five champions failed to do (repeat), even though he knows how difficult it will be. For all the confidence gained and perceived slights, the Celtics’ motivation will come from each other.
“I think these guys push each other,” Stevens said. “They have a unique chemistry that I really think matters, and they deserve the opportunity to take on this challenge together.”
That’s right: the Celtics’ title defense — or, as they’re putting it, their title —stroke” — starts now.
