The Boston Celtics continued to bond into a new decade after a group New Year’s Eve outing organized by point guard Kemba Walker, relates rookie wing Romeo Langford.
At this point, it’s clear the Boston Celtics’ chemistry isn’t an act.
Starting with Team Shamrock this summer as Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart bonded while playing for Team USA all the way up to Tuesday night’s New Year’s celebrations, the camaraderie shared by the Celtics is based in real mutual respect and friendship.
It’s driven the team’s success in ways which are difficult not to compare to last season’s dysfunction.
So, we won’t.
Instead, the focus should be on how veteran leadership shown by UConn product Walker in organizing the team’s decade-end festivities as an example of how the team has managed to integrate a staggering seven rookies into the roster in a uniquely low-pressure environment despite the team’s recent past.
It’s allowing first-year players to contribute to the team with the third-best record in the league without feeling pressure to produce most teams with younger players in such a situation might not.
You know, some hypothetical team, struggling to live up to big expectations.
Small gestures, such as Walker’s invitation to his teammates to ring in he new year collectively, might not seem like a big deal, but they do a lot of good, especially for young players just entering the league.
“Kemba set [the team’s New Year’s gathering] up. It was his idea, his party,” said rookie wing Langford (courtesy of NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg).
“He wanted all of us to be able to end the year on a good note, help us out with team bonding,” he added.
That bonding and its role in team cohesion isn’t lost on the rookies, who recognize the value it has brought the team, and more specifically, themselves as they try to learn how to be professionals at the highest level of their chosen vocation.
“It’s been real nice. It makes the transition into the NBA a lot easier to have a nice, supporting cast and guys like that welcome you with open arms from the jump,” Langford explained.
“I feel the good vibes. Definitely,” he continued.
“From top to bottom, everybody gels, everybody works together well. It’s not like you can only go talk to one person on the team, or one other vet. You can go talk to anybody you want and they’ll help you out with something. And it translates on the court because we all trust each other and have great chemistry.”
It strains the mind of even those of us who’d prefer to have our memories of last season flashed Men In Black-style, never again to have to revisit a situation which sounds the polar opposite of what the Indiana native describes this iteration of the Celtics to be like.
But we won’t linger there.
With a heavy schedule between now and the All-Star break, plenty of those rookies will see real minutes to help the older (and more banged-up) vets weather the busy slate of games ahead.
And friendships and trust built by spending holidays together will help power Boston through one of the more challenging segments of the season.
While it might be nearly as worn a path as the darker side of the coin that was 2018-19, the ubuntu-like bond this team shares defines Boston in ways which are transforming individual narratives in ways focusing on the self never could have.
There’s an object lesson in there somewhere, but not for fans, nor for analysts to lecture professionals in another field on, either.
This season’s Celtics have built something sustainable, and looking ahead from the start of a new year, new decade, and quite possibly new era…
…it’s pretty hard not to be optimistic.
