The Boston Celtics recently announced the return of former Celtic veteran wing Evan Turner, and the team seems pretty excited about the ten-year veteran’s return to the franchise.
As recently as last season, there had been rumbles about bringing Turner back to the club as a player, with not a small part of the draw being his veteran experience to impart with one of the league’s youngest rosters.
Now, with news he’ll be filling the role vacated by assistant coach Allison Feaster — who has moved on to accept the head coaching position for the Duke Women’s Basketball program — players and staff alike seem excited to have that veteran leadership with the team on the other side of the clipboard.
Head coach Brad Stevens was still a relatively new arrival when the Celtics signed Turner as a free agent in 2014, having just finished his own inaugural season in the NBA in 2013-14.
ET became one the former Butler coach’s first of several successful player-rehabilitation prospects after improving his standing enough to land a four-year, $70 million contract with the Portland Trail Blazers two seasons later, and Stevens sounded like he still has a soft spot for his former player.
“He’s a special guy, a really good player at a lot of places, [who] had two great years here,” offered the coach. “But, he just loves to be around the game, and I think really loves to help people. And he’s got us a real service-orientedness to him. He’s a team guy, and I think that all of our players will love having him around.”
“I think a lot of our younger players will really benefit from his advice, his experience,” Stevens added.
CLAB 22: Talking Kemba’s knee, media week and All-Time All-Stars with John Karalis https://t.co/4kVR48rrao
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 5, 2020
“I thought that was a great move by the front office,” echoed Brown.
“Having people who’ve played the game that are around, played at a high level and just finished playing, I think … is an added benefit to our team. We can relate, [and] he can relate to us. He knows how our minds are thinking. Having him in those coaches meetings are going to be important.”
The Georgia native got to Boston a season too late to have overlapped with him, but undoubtedly crossed paths with him in games and around league functions more generally.
And as most of the press corp will emphatically attest, Turner is one hard man to forget.
The former Celtic has always been one for a witty comment, but he’s long been a glue guy on the team’s he’s played for as well; weld it all together, and it’s pretty easy to see why Brown and Stevens are so into the hire.
[jwplayer gGabj0xN]
[lawrence-related id=43876,28527,27097,43899]
[listicle id=44028]