LAS VEGAS – Today is a tough day. It’s hard to say goodbye.
Today, I, along with the Celtics organization and fan base, have to say goodbye
to Avery Bradley.
No one wanted Avery to go. Everyone wanted him to stay. But as we all know, this
is a business, and the Celtics must put franchise goals ahead of personal
feelings. That’s part of Danny Ainge’s job description.
Trading Avery to the Detroit Pistons will free up the necessary cap space for
the Celtics to sign a premier free agent who could very well alter the arc of
the franchise for the next 5-10 years, and that arc may very well reach the
height of Banner 18 and beyond.
But that doesn’t make saying goodbye any easier.
Avery and I didn’t come to the Celtics at the exact same time, but it was pretty
darn close. I came to the franchise in March of 2009. Avery, meanwhile, was
drafted in June of 2010.
I’ll never forget the day he was introduced as the newest member of the Boston
Celtics, after he was chosen with the 19th overall pick during the 2010 NBA
Draft.
It was the day after the Draft, on June 25, and Avery had already made his way
to Boston to be introduced to the media alongside fellow draft pick Luke
Harangody. The first thing I thought of when I met him was, “Man, he’s still
just a kid.”
And he was. At 19 years old, and only one year removed from sitting in English
class in high school, Avery was still growing, both from a physical and an
emotional standpoint.
He was a quiet and humble kid, who sat at the podium in Waltham and gently spoke
into the microphone as he answered the media’s questions. His answers were
brief, yet honest and heartfelt. But boy, was he quiet and soft-spoken.
Fast-forward to today, and when you meet Avery, you don’t meet a kid. You meet a
man.
I’ve watched Avery grow up, and it has been an absolute pleasure.
Avery went through some tough times during his tenure in Boston, which, by the
way, had him ranked as the longest-tenured player on the team up until this
trade.
He opened his career on the injured list with a bum ankle that became a problem
during the lead-up to the Draft, that required surgery, and that forced him to
miss training camp during his rookie season. That injury was a godsend, however,
because had Avery never suffered that injury, he almost certainly wouldn’t have
slipped to the Celtics at pick No. 19.
But he did, and then he joined a team that was in the heat of title contention.
Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo were two years removed
from winning Banner 17, and they wanted more.
Doc Rivers was the coach, and he was never keen on giving young guys a chance.
Avery was no exception.
Avery barely played during his rookie season as Doc unsuccessfully attempted to
mold him into a point guard – which Avery is very much not – and that wasn’t
easy on the young kid. Playing point guard was a massive failure, and riding the
bench was a new role he had never been in before. Both of those factors stunted
his growth as a player.
Soon enough, however, he would break through, and it was all because of his
defense.
Doc said the night the C’s drafted Avery that the kid could walk in and make an
immediate impact with his defense. We began to see that impact on a nightly
basis during the second half of his second season, in 2011-2012, and that’s when
things began to fall into place for Avery.
I’ll never forget the Jameer Nelson game, on Jan. 23, 2012. Avery never will,
either.
Avery started at point guard in place of an injured Rondo and was all over
Nelson, an All-Star point guard the previous season, like white on rice. I’ve
never seen defense like this from start to finish of a game. Ever. It truly was
inspiring, and the rest of the C’s fed off of it. Avery literally had Nelson
begging for mercy, as the then 21-year-old shared after the game.
“He seemed like he didn’t even want to bring the ball up,” Avery said that night
with a little extra zest. “I looked at him and he kept telling me throughout the
game, ‘Don’t pick me up! Don’t pick me up!’ And that’s when I knew if I brought
pressure, he didn’t want nothing to do with it.”
Bradley began to make a similar defensive impact on a nightly basis, and he
began to hit his 3s, too. He eventually stole the starting shooting guard role
from Allen, a future Hall-of-Famer, during March of his second season.
But in the midst of the 2012 playoffs, Avery’s shoulders gave out – quite
literally. He played through the pain while he could, as team medical personnel
continued to pop his shoulders back into place, but it eventually reached a
point where the C’s could no longer allow him to take the court. He missed the
final three games of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and all seven games of
the Eastern Conference Finals against LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami
Heat.
It wasn’t long too after that that Avery would suffer the greatest loss of his
life. His mother, Alicia Jones-Bradley, passed away in September of 2013. Avery
rightfully struggled mightily to cope with the loss during the following years.
Whenever you see him hit a 3-pointer and point to the sky, that’s who he’s
pointing to. She meant and still means the world to him.
What would soon bring him back was a moment at the opposite end of the spectrum,
when he witnessed the birth of his first child, Avery Bradley III, just two
weeks later. Avery would go on to marry his beautiful wife, Ashley, welcome
another child, Ashton, and the couple will soon welcome the birth of their first
daughter.
All the while, Avery continued to improve each and every season. I’ll never
forget Doc talking about DeMar DeRozan back in the day, and raving about how he
knew DeRozan would become a great player because he improved every single year.
That’s Avery. Avery has gotten better literally every single year of his career.
He just posted career highs in points, rebounds and assists. I’ll expect nothing
less from him as he now joins the Pistons.
Detroit is getting a rock-solid player, but it’s getting an even better person.
That shy, quiet 19-year-old is no longer around – OK, he might still be quiet,
but Avery is such a different person.
Avery is a leader. He’s a model citizen. He’s a proud father and husband. He’s a
true asset to a community. And, least importantly, he’s a pretty darn good
basketball player, too.
I watched Avery come in back in 2010 as a timid youngster who faced dramatic
challenges, but it was so rewarding to watch him battle through those roadblocks
and become the man and player he is today, all while building a long-lasting
relationship.
That’s why today is so tough. It’s always difficult to say goodbye, but it’s
really difficult to say goodbye to one of the best people you’ve ever met, and a
person for whom you hold so much respect.
Detroit, Boston’s loss is your gain, in so many ways. I hope you enjoy your time
with Avery as much as I did.
Player: Avery Bradley
Media Content:
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to-avery-bradley
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Taxonomy: offseason, Summer, Trade, Miscellaneous, column
Story Link:
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to-avery-bradley
