Wallace: Off-Court Discipline Produces Celtics' On-Court Success

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/wallace-court-discipline-produces-cs-court-success




Wallace: Off-court discipline produces C's on-court success
April 13, 2015, 11:00 am






BOSTON – Gerald Wallace is not about sugarcoating the truth.

He’s a straight-up, no-chaser kind of guy which is rare among professional athletes.

So when we talked about this amazing run the Boston Celtics are on that has them on the brink of the playoffs, I asked him if he thought the Celtics would be in a playoff race this season.

“No. No. I didn’t think so,” he told CSNNE.com. “I didn’t think so this year.”

Like most of the Celtics, he is quick to praise head coach Brad Stevens for galvanizing a team that had plenty of opportunities to splinter all season and forge them into a playoff contender.

Lots of trades and injuries created inconsistent minutes for players, inconsistent success and lots of uncertainty as to how this was all going to come together.

And while Stevens deserves lots of credit, Wallace believes praise should be doled out to a group of players that in his eyes have shown maturity beyond their birth certificates.

“Usually when you got guys and they first come into the league, they enjoy the off the court lifestyle more than they do the on the court lifestyle,” Wallace told CSNNE.com. “They’re young. They have money. They’re able to do a lot of things they weren’t capable of doing on their own. We’re in different cities every night. There’s a lot of temptations but this team and these guys have done a great job of disciplining themselves and staying together to avoid those trouble issues.”

Just last week, Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland was stabbed at a New York City night club. Also at the club, Atlanta Hawks players Thabo Sefolosha and Pero Antic were arrested for trying to prevent the police from setting up a crime scene. In addition, Antic was charged with disorderly conduct and menacing. Sefolosha, who suffered a broken right fibula and ligament damage during the arrest, was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

“Sometimes things like that happen,” Wallace said. “You happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. We’re fortunate we haven’t had that problem on our team.”

Celtics head coach Brad Stevens isn’t privy to what’s happening with the players involved in the New York City incident.

But in terms of his own players, “Guys have to be responsible to do the right things. That impacts your team.

Stevens added, “We don’t talk about it a lot to be honest. We talk about the importance of representing the Celtics well and how important it is to take your role in Boston seriously. But we don’t talk about it much more than that. It’s an expectation that you have being part of this organization.”



bob
MY NOTE:  I absolutely LOVE the last paragraph.  Brad Stevens has this matter-of-fact professional air about him that says that "of course you should prepare and play with Pride.  It's your job AND you're a Boston Celtic" that makes me melt like marshmallow over a campfire.  If Danny does nothing else, he hit a home run signing him for 6 years.


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