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BOSTON – Antoine Walker has some advice for the Boston Celtics: “Let’s get the word ‘rebuilding’ out of here and start thinking about being a playoff team.”
It would be wise of these Celtics to heed this advice. After all, Walker has already completed the task of turning a rebuilding team into a contender in Boston.
Walker was drafted sixth overall by a struggling Celtics team in 1996, just months after he helped the Kentucky Wildcats win a national championship. The selection took him from the pinnacle of college basketball to the cellar of the NBA.
As one would expect, that adjustment was not an easy one for Walker to handle. But through it all, he maintained a positive outlook with an eye toward the future.
“I didn’t get caught up in wins and losses at that time,” he tells Celtics.com. “I was more worried about developing as a player and getting better and trying to be the cornerstone for the organization at that time.”
This is where the parallel between Walker and Boston’s current players begins. Just a season ago, the Celtics coaching staff was dedicated to the development of young talents like Avery Bradley, Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk and others. Any wins that came along the way were icing on the cake.
The hope is that in the long run, the development of Boston’s current players will rival that of Walker’s in the late 90s. Walker’s concentrated effort turned him into an All-Star and a perennial 20-points per game scorer. Meanwhile, the C’s struggled through an average of 23.3 wins in his first three seasons.
Walker’s development played a key role in the team’s speedy turnaround. By the time Paul Pierce came to town in 1998, Walker was a bona fide star. Pierce’s arrival gave him a running mate to quickly turn the Celtics into a contender.
“You could start to feel it a little bit,” Walker remembers following Pierce’s arrival. “The building – at that time the Fleet Center – had energy again. It had energy again. The fans were starting to support again. You could start to feel it, start to see it.”
Boston’s win total increased in each of the first four seasons in which Walker and Pierce played alongside each other. The C’s were competing for a berth to the Finals by the duo’s fourth season together, though they fell to the New Jersey Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The turnaround was swift and powerful, and Walker believes the current Celtics are capable of making a similar move. All they need, according to the former champion, is to attack this season with the correct mindset.
“I think, especially for Coach (Stevens), he has to not talk about rebuilding,” says Walker. “He has to talk about being a playoff team, about really just trying to win right now.”
Walker says that the players must also believe that they are capable of stepping into the postseason. He continues by saying, “I think it’s something that in the locker room they should be talking about, ‘Hey, we’re going to make the playoffs.’ And if you do that, I think anything can happen.”
That being said, expectations must be tapered. Walker wants the Celtics to be thinking about the playoffs, not about a championship.
“The advice I’d give these guys is, let’s set some realistic goals for ourselves,” says Walker. “Let’s try to be the seventh or eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and start changing the culture around here.”
Once the Celtics accomplish that goal, they’ll start to feel the momentum build in the same fashion Walker did in the late 90s. The energy that will surround them on a nightly basis in TD Garden will be palpable.
“The fans are unbelievable here, especially when they’ve got a good product. They come out and they support,” says Walker. “It’s going to be loud. It’s going to be crazy.”
Trust him. He’s been here before.
Walker kicked the rebuild mantra to the curb in Boston and took the Celtics to the playoffs. Maybe his advice will help these current Celtics do the same.