While Blake Griffin didn’t play important minutes for the Celtics final season, his worth as a veteran presence and core member of the locker room was unquestioned. And when their playoff run resulted in May, there was hope he would return.
During an look on the favored podcast “Pardon My Take” that aired on Monday, Payton Pritchard and Derrick White revealed that the Celtics tried to recruit Griffin to come back again this season.
“We begged him to,” Pritchard stated on the podcast. “We’ve been begging him to.”
“I think the whole team has been begging him to come back to Boston,” White added.
Pritchard, who was shut with Griffin, stated he texted him lately to jokingly ask him, “Coming back for one last ride?”
“He says he’s enjoying his life,” Pritchard stated.
“Big Cat,” one of many hosts of “Pardon My Take,” then related with Griffin through FaceTime throughout the podcast and repeated to him what Pritchard stated.
“Yeah, we talk quite a bit,” Griffin stated. “I’m just enjoying life right now, I guess.”
Griffin, after all, didn’t return and whereas he isn’t formally retired from basketball, it doesn’t appear seemingly – at the very least this season. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla realized what Griffin’s precedence was following final season, and acknowledged {that a} comeback was unlikely.
“I talked to him a little bit in the offseason, I talked to him I think one or two times when we were in LA, but when he told me at the end of last season that his family was the most important thing, I stopped talking to him about it because I know what it’s like to be away from your kids and be away from your family,” Mazzulla stated. “So he was all the time going to make the choice that was finest for him. …
“He just said that the most important thing was his kids.”
Even although he received’t be again, Griffin was universally liked in Boston. Once a celebrity within the league, Griffin grew to become self-aware of his diminished talents and accepted a diminished position on the Celtics, and was productive on the courtroom every time he was known as upon over 41 common season video games, which included 16 spot begins.
But his actual worth got here within the locker room, the place the Celtics described him as their funniest teammate who saved issues unfastened over a protracted, generally hectic season. He was additionally a veteran mentor for a number of younger gamers, particularly Pritchard who leaned on him throughout a tough season. Mazzulla usually praised Griffin as a cornerstone of their locker room and described him as an ideal teammate.
“Blake’s probably one of the best teammates all of us have ever had,” White stated. “So any time you have him around, it’s great. But, I mean, I feel like it’s his decision (to not return) and we respect that, but we all just love having him around.”
No complacency
With 25 video games remaining within the common season, the Celtics are actually eight video games forward of the Cavaliers for the No. 1 seed within the Eastern Conference. Barring a not possible collapse, the C’s ought to clinch the highest spot. So, it is likely to be arduous to remain motivated over this remaining stretch. But they nonetheless consider they’ve room to develop earlier than a very powerful video games start.
“I don’t wanna say we’re at the highest point,” White stated. “We think we can just keep getting better. We know what the end goal is but we got 25 more games to keep playing our best basketball. We just take each opportunity as a challenge and every time we go out there we’re competing and having fun doing what we do.”
The Celtics don’t get constant follow time over the course of the season, so Monday’s session was essential as they targeted on sure particulars.
“It was great. We went for 90 minutes today,” Mazzulla stated. “It was a balance of information, a balance of technique, and then a balance of execution. So just kind of talking to the guys and seeing where we think the team is at and what we need to work on as far as those three things, technique, execution, and the details.”
76ers subsequent
Since Joel Embiid went out along with his knee damage, the 76ers are 4-7 and falling within the Eastern Conference standings. But despite the fact that the reigning MVP received’t be on the courtroom, the Celtics received’t be taking their rival frivolously after they go to Boston on Tuesday evening.
“Obviously Embiid’s out, but they’ve got so much talent and guys out there, they play hard,” White stated. “So it’s going to be definitely a challenge every time we play Philly. No matter who’s in the lineup, it’s a tough game, so we’ve got to be ready to go.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com