Olynyk travels to India
Forward working with kids at Basketball Without Borders event
Heat star shares game with kids.
MIAMI — Kelly Olynyk wanted more because a year ago he had experienced so much more.
So the Miami Heat big man has decided he won’t stop, even if his team’s season ended more than a month ago, after five playoff games.
“It’s definitely different,” Olynyk said Friday from India, where he has spent the past week working at the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders camp. “This year, obviously, unfortunately, we had a little more down time.”
A year after being part of the Boston Celtics’ push to the Eastern Conference finals, Olynyk found himself without basketball after an April 24 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers
ended the Heat’s season.
What has followed has been immersion in the game away from the teammates he joined as a free agent in July.
He attended Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals at TD Garden to support his former teammates and Celtics coach Brad Stevens. Then came this opportunity to deliver NBA-level instruction to young players from across Asia, a payback after attending a Basketball Without Borders event in 2009 as a camper.
And then, after a brief pit stop back in South Florida, he will return home to work with the Canadian senior men’s national team, as they attempt to qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
“It gives you a little more time to do some more things, experience more things in life and kind of take a mental break from the game and refresh yourself,” he said.
The 27-year-old 7-footer joked that the break from the game included bypassing watching Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which started at 6:30 a.m. where he is staying, just outside of Delhi.
“To tell you the truth,” he said, “I didn’t even watch. We’re staying on a golf course and we went out golfing at 6 a.m. before the camp.”
His schedule also kept him from catching his former team lose Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers — “we were taking a bus to the Taj Mahal” — but he embraced the opportunity to attend Game 5 of that series.
“I’m a basketball fan,” he said. “I love the game of basketball. That’s one of the reasons I’m in India right now, working with Basketball Without Borders, just because how much love and passion I have for the
game of basketball at all levels. And being able to go to a game in TD Garden where I played for four years, with the same coaches and a few of the same guys and watch them play and compete, you know, it’s a fun experience and it’s something I really enjoyed.
“Unfortunately, I wish it was us and it was something that makes you leave that taste in your mouth where you want that, you want to experience that. I want that next year to be Game 5 [of the Eastern Conference finals] in Miami, at AmericanAirlines Arena, either playing them or somebody else. That’s the goal. That’s what it’s all about.”
The passion for the game will have him on the court this summer alongside fellow NBA players such as Tristan Thompson, Dwight Powell and Corey Joseph, even as fellow Canadian NBA players such as Andrew Wiggins and Nik Stauskas bypass the added work.
“It’s always a debate people have — guys should play, guys shouldn’t play,” he said. “I think it’s really to each their own. A lot of guys have different needs and wants and a lot of people’s bodies are different.
Some people need more time or more rest. Some people don’t like that side of it. Other guys just want to play basketball.
“For me, I love giving back to my country that raised me and gave me all the opportunities to be where I am today. That’s something that’s really special to me. Anytime I have the opportunity to put on that jersey and fight for my country, I’m welcoming that opportunity to step up to the plate.”
A year ago, Olynyk was caught up in a different type of whirlwind, preparing for the free agency that would leave him on the outside in Boston after the Celtics signed Gordon Hayward, instead signing a four-year, $50 million contract with the Heat.
“Last July was pretty chaotic and a little bit hectic, to say the least,” he said. “To be able to go through the summer without that on your mind and to be able to focus on yourself and improving yourself, helping yourself and, in turn, help the team next year, that’s what it’s all about.”