Kemba Walker, Brad Stevens shed light on Celtic guard’s rehab, return

Despite the recent setback with access to practice space, the UConn product and his coach are positive about his imminent return.

After the Boston Celtics had their first practice since getting shut down after a spate of positive COVID-19 tests and resulting contact tracing forced the team to have to postpone several games over the last week, head coach Brad Stevens and point guard Kemba Walker spoke with the media Thursday.

The pair spoke on a number of topics ranging from the tumultuous events of the last several days to the health of Jayson Tatum and Robert Williams III. Walker’s return to action was a key point of interest with the press for both, with the former Butler chief and the UConn product both fielding a number of questions regarding his status moving forward.

“He’s been able to continue to do his rehab in one-on-one-settings, and his strengthening is going fantastic,” related Stevens on Walker’s activities in recent days, which saw the practice facilities shuttered almost as soon as he had been cleared to return to practice.

“He’s put in a ton of work. He went full-go today for an hour with us; we did not go live, but we did a lot of up-and-down, we did a lot of just trying to get our legs back in some ways with guys that haven’t done anything for a week. And [Kemba] looked good. What that means as far as next steps, and playing and when to play and all that stuff, that’s a decision for Kemba and our training staff. I think they put together a hell of a plan to be honest.”

“When he comes back, it will be because hes ready, and because he feels great,” he added.

Walker, still sweating from that hour-long workout, emphasized the care he and the training staff were putting into the rehab process — and the time they were taking to ensure its success.

“I’m definitely going to make the best decision for myself,” he began.

“Honestly I’m feeling pretty good right now. And I did say I was feeling really good the last time before the bubble, which I was. But, the time and in-between wasn’t really beneficial for me. But now, I’m feeling really good and the way I’m feeling right now is different from the way I felt before I went into the bubble. Now, I’ve been able to take my time; I attack my rehab. From day one, I wanted to get healthy.”

I want to stay healthy, try my best and not have any setback, so that’s the plan,” said Walker. “Whenever I’m feeling good and whenever I’m mentally ready to get out there and comfortable, I will.”

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