Ahead of the Disney-hosted ‘Orlando bubble’ hosted at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in lake Buena Vista, Florida, the Boston Celtics continued their daily media availability sessions via telepresence with team beat writers.
The previous several days featured forward Gordon Hayward, centers Enes Kanter and Daniel Theis, and point Kemba Walker as well as head coach Brad Stevens since the start of mandatory individual workouts began in July 1st.
Today’s session began with reserve point guard Brad Wanamaker, who has been spending time with his family — who ironically live in Orlando — before traveling back to Massachusetts to start working on his conditioning ahead of the restart.
Brad Wanamaker spent his time with his family, who lives in Orlando, home schooling his kids.
"It was tough to leave my kids behind (now), but it's part of the sacrifice."
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) July 3, 2020
“It was tough to leave my kids behind (now), but it’s part of the sacrifice,” he offered via the Athletic’s Jared Weiss.
Regarding popular chatter that any title won in the so-called ‘bubble’ would have an asterisk next to it, the Pitt product wasn’t buying it according to team reporter Taylor Snow; “To me, a championship is a championship regardless of the situation.”
That the veteran guard will be playing for his next contract wasn’t lost on Wanamaker. “I’m going to be a free agent, so that’s in the back of my mind.”
Brad Wanamaker: "There's egos on the team, but ours don't stand out as much because everybody wants to see each other win and do well. That's another advantage for us. We all want to see each other do well, regardless of whether you're playing 10 min that game or 30 min."
— Nicole Yang (@nicolecyang) July 3, 2020
He believes the chemistry driving some of Boston’s 2019-20 success is still there, per the Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang.
“There’s egos on the team, but ours don’t stand out as much because everybody wants to see each other win and do well. That’s another advantage for us. We all want to see each other do well, regardless of whether you’re playing 10 minutes that game or 30 minutes.”
“We all cheer for each other,” he added via the Celtics, “so that’s special to have within a team.”
With games being without fans, there have been a number of suggestions on how to liven up broadcasts, and at least one was not especially attractive to the former Panther.
Brad Wanamaker: "Hopefully we're not mic'd up and they don't pick up too much of the language, because guys will definitely be talking trash."
NBA Fans: pic.twitter.com/Rnsq9x22BY
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) July 3, 2020
“Hopefully we’re not mic’d up and they don’t pick up too much of the language, because guys will definitely be talking trash,” said Wanamaker.
However the league decides to tackle the unique conditions generated by the exigencies of pandemic basketball, expect creativity.
While Wanamaker’s fears of ubiquitous hot mics may not come to pass, there will likely be some kind of initiative to turn the highly unusual situation into a positive.
And while live mics in live games might be an FCC nightmare in terms of obscenities, there’s probably a sizeable contingents of fans who would actually want to hear the expletive-laden exchanges soon to grace the Disney NBA campus.
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