The Celtics open up their season against the 76ers tonight. A team they have largely owned for a few years now. I can’t make up my mind when it comes to the Celtics. One day I think they’re screwed. The next day I’m very hopeful. I guess that’s what happens when Kyrie Irving and Al Horford walk out the door to only be replaced by Kemba Walker and Enes Kanter. As I sit here today, I’m ready to root for the team in green.
Gordon Hayward wrote a piece for The Players Tribune that fired me up. It was titled “The Team In Green” as an ode to his daughters. Banner 18 is coming! Here’s an excerpt from his article:
“We root for the team in the green.”
“My daughters know, man. They know. They’re still too young to really get it any more than that, but I feel pretty good about things — just thinking about how far they’ve come in these last couple of years: They know their dad plays for the basketball team in Boston. They know it’s the Celtics. And they know that we always, always root for “the team in green.”
I’ll take it. And all jokes aside, it’s the sort of thing that reminds me of how far I’ve come myself over these last couple of years. There was the injury in Year One, which we definitely don’t need to rehash in this article — that was as tough as it gets. And then there was last season, which was also extremely tough in its own way. And we don’t need to rehash that here, either, but I’ll just leave it like this: No one signs with the Celtics to get bounced in Round 2, you know what I mean?”
Hayward seems to believe in this team. He went into detail about each teammate on the roster. He was overly glowing about Kemba Walker. That’s the most encouraging part. Kemba needs to be better than Kyrie Irving was a year ago. Point blank, end of story. The words that Hayward had for Kemba are really encouraging. If big leaps come from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, I’m back in. Oh, and Hayward declared himself as back. I’m officially back in and I already know my heart will get ripped out.
