The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
A little closer to home
UConn’s ultimate winner looks to win in Boston
BOSTON — He’s as New York as it gets, and may be the most beloved figure in UConn men’s basketball history.
Boston may not be home to Kemba Walker — his mom, Andrea, said she had never been to the city until this week — but his arrival with the Celtics sure feels like a homecoming.
“Whenever I played in Boston, you’d always see a bunch of UConn jerseys,” Walker said on Wednesday, as he was formally introduced as a Boston Celtic at the Auerbach Center. “When they called my name, I always got a good ovation, they didn’t boo me much. I’m superexcited to be back, not only to get a chance to play in front of the Boston fans, but UConn fans as well. And I get to see Coach ( Jim) Calhoun a little more, so, yes, I’m excited.”
Walker signed a fouryear, $141 million maximum contract with the Celtics after spending his first eight NBA seasons in Charlotte. Celtics general manager Danny Ainge noted that Walker probably could have earned more money elsewhere, but that he chose Boston for one reason.
“He wants to win,” Ainge said. “Kemba’s accomplished a lot of things individually in the NBA. Now, he wants to win.” Walker concurred.
“For me, it’s the competitiveness of this organization,” he said. “They’ve been winning here for years. You see all the banners upstairs in the arena. It’s a winning organization, and I want to win. That’s what I’m about. During my basketball career, as a pro, I haven’t won consistently, and this was the best place for me to do that.”
It’s odd to hear Walker and Ainge talk about Walker’s lack of winning. He was nothing short of the ultimate winner at UConn, whether it was the Maui Championship in 2010 (where Ainge said he first “fell in love” with the highscoring point guard), the anklebreaking stepback and five wins in five nights at the 2011 Big East championship, or the six more wins after that to seal a third national title for Calhoun and the Huskies.
UConn beat a Butler team
coached by current Celtics coach Brad Stevens in that championship game on April 4, 2011, paced by 16 points by Walker — who was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
Stevens said he and Walker were talking about that game Tuesday night at Stevens’ home.
“I don’t think anybody thinks that game was a Michaelangelo,” Stevens said of the Huskies’ 5341 victory. “It was two hardnosed teams that really defended. We couldn’t put the ball in the ocean, and they had a lot to do with it. But I had seen Kemba play long before that when he was in high school and had a lot of respect for him, so I knew how good he was going into that game. And I’ve been impressed with his ascension since.”
Stevens said he saw Walker play in high school and on the AAU circuit with the New York Gauchos. He didn’t even bother trying to recruit Walker to Butler — “We couldn’t get a guy like that” — but finally got to coach him for the first time in the NBA AllStar Game a few years back.
Now, he’s got him for at least the next four years.
“To be around him, to know everybody who’s coached him, he’s worked really hard to put himself in the position he’s in,” Stevens said.
“He’s a great coach,” Walker said of Stevens. “I know he watches tons of film. I’m excited to get things going.”
He added, with a smile: “His point guards are very successful. They score a lot.”
In fact, Walker has already won a recruiting battle for the Celtics. On the first night of free ageny, while with Ainge at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, Ainge put Walker on the phone with freeagent big man Enes Kanter to try to persuade him to come to the Celtics.
On Wednesday, Kanter sat beside Walker on the podium, less than an hour after signing a contract with Boston.
Walker helped UConn reach the Final Four as a freshman, and after a disappointing (NIT) sophomore season, unleashed one of the greatest individual seasons in college basketball history. It started in Maui, when Walker almost singlehandedly led the Huskies to wins over Wichita State, Michigan State and Kentucky to win the Maui Invitational.
Ainge had a courtside seat for that.
“The whole world realized how good he was then,” Ainge recalled, “but sitting in the front row, watching closely, it was very exciting.”
Later that season, it was the historic run through the Big East tourney, highlighted by his gamewinning stepback jumper a quarterfinal win over Pittsburgh that eternally doomed defender Gary McGhee to posterized status. Ironically, another member of that Pitt squad, Brad Wanamaker, resigned with the Celtics on Wednesday.
Six more wins in the NCAA tournament — leaving the likes of Kawhi Leonard (San Diego State), John Calipari (Kentucky) and, ultimately, Stevens in his dust — was the icing on the cake.
Now, Kemba Walker arrives in Boston looking to establish himself as — believe it or not — a winner. Who’s going to bet against him?
RIM RATTLINGS
⏩ Walker will wear No. 8, a number once worn by another player named Walker in Boston — former AllStar forward Antoine Walker (no relation).
Why No. 8? For one, there aren’t a whole lot of numbers available that aren’t either currently in use or retired in the rafters. Walker also noted his birthday is May 8. He said he spoke to Antoine about it and everything is cool.
Kemba’s mom, Andrea, was slated to visit with Shabazz Napier’s mom, Carmen, on Wednesday afternoon. She’s looking forward to a new experience in Boston, surrounded by UConn fans.
“Hopefully, I’ll see some of my old friends,” she said. “I’ll get to see Coach (Calhoun), hopefully Pat, his wife, and I’m looking forward to seeing his grandkids to see how grown they are now.”
“It’s gonna be exciting. I’ve never been here. I can’t wait to see the fanbase and just get into the game. If you know me, you know I cheer a lot. In the NBA, I do the same thing as when we were at UConn.”
⏩ Stevens was asked about Tremont Waters, the New Haven product selected in the second round of the NBA draft whose father, Ed, committed suicide last week.
“Obviously, it’s a really terrible situation,” said the coach. “(Tremont) stayed in Vegas, went back home. Now, they’re putting together the (funeral) arrangements and everything else. We’re in close contact with him. As you would expect, it’s been a real tough week. We’re here if he needs us. He knows that.”