C’s prepare for second restart
Open conference semifinals against the Raptors today
For many NBA players, the step back into basketball will be steep after two days of meetings, lifting their social platform back into prominence and deciding whether they even wanted to play again.
A special kind of focus is required now, when the Celtics return to begin their second-round playoff series today against Toronto at 1 p.m.
“I got in an elevator, and Mason Plumlee was in the elevator,” Jaylen Brown said of the Denver center. “I think he was getting ready to go to practice, and he was giving himself words of affirmations, like ‘I want to go to practice, I love basketball. I’m happy to be here.’
“I was like, ‘Man, everybody is kind of going through the same thing.’”
Brown tied this moment back to something he said during a meeting with fellow NBA players on Thursday night, when the Celtics forward asked if their desire to leave the bubble was for the right reason: to join the social justice fight.
“The boycott – or the strike, whatever – because you feel strongly about something or to raise awareness, it shouldn’t be mixed in with your feelings about the bubble,” he said. “That was one thing I wanted to make clear when I was in the meeting.”
Brown was also confident he wouldn’t be stripping his gears by getting back on the court.
“It’s a challenge that I willingly signed up for. We got to keep pushing that line,” he said of continuing to make sure basketball doesn’t blot out their greater social justice mission. “We gotta keep demanding justice. We gotta hold people accountable. We’ve got to hold the police accountable. You know, especially the ones who are not operating in a way that’s recognizable by human beings.”
As two of the earliest teams to openly discuss whether or not to stay in the bubble following the shooting of Jacob Blake – Toronto’s Fred VanVleet was the first to question continuing to play – the Celtics and Raptors now have to focus back on each other.
That can take time, said Raptors coach Nick Nurse.
“It felt like another restart almost,” he said. “It’s like you haven’t played a game for a while and now you haven’t practiced for a while and you go back and you’re just working on passing and catching the ball and dribbling a little bit and just kind of getting the cobwebs out and I think it took a while, to be honest with you, it took almost I’d say three, half, or three-fourths of a practice before it felt like we kind of were moving OK and were zeroed in on basketball a little bit, but all understandable stuff, but that’s kind of what was going on.
“It was obviously a different scene, for sure. The games not being played, the uncertainty of that, a big group meeting, waiting game, a lot of emotion around the incident, a lot of emotion around the meetings and the talks and then you come back and decide you’re going to play and kind of get your head around that and then try to figure out when that was going to be, again, so there was, as you know, a lot of stuff happening. There was a lot of kind of hurry up and wait and sitting around and evaluating your thoughts and emotions and stuff too. So that’s about as best as I can describe it.”
As Jayson Tatum admits, there’s a bit of a process involved in this particular return to play.
“As you can probably guess or imagine, there’s a lot been going on recently,” he said. “It kind of made it difficult to focus on basketball, so there’s been a lot to process over this last week
or so. And then on a much, I guess, less important scale, try to figure out how to focus on basketball. I think we did a pretty good job (Saturday). We’re just trying to regroup and refocus on the game (today).”
Told about Nurse’s observations about his players’ return to action, Brad Stevens smiled behind his mask.
“That makes me feel better because we were about the same way,” said the Celtics coach. “I think that’s just part of it. Listen, it’s been mentioned on several occasions and you feel it. When I say the word ‘heavy’ it just means everybody’s human. You’ve seen a number of players speak this week. You’ve seen a number of others speak this week. There’s a lot of emotions involved.
“You’re also in this bubble and you’re also isolated from your families and everything else. Maybe that all plays a big role,” said Stevens. “I think ultimately there’s a recognition amongst us all when we’re in the gym and going through practice that there is that element, and at the same time we recognize that we’re all held to playing well.
“So that is a challenge. There’s no question about it. I give huge kudos to the players on this team and also across the league that are here and that have had this level of discussion and this level of thought and put their heads together and decided to come back and play. But that’s not going to mean you just walk back on the court and you’re excited about doing a shell drill. That’s not the way it works, right? So ultimately I think we all understand that, but we’re going to do our best to be prepared for (today), as is every other team, and when the ball gets tipped off it’ll hopefully be fun to watch.”