Boston Celtics: Two teammates forming formidable bond in quarantine

Through what has been an unprecedented period of life, two Boston Celtics teammates have come together during the extended lock-down due to COVID-19.

It doesn’t get much better than the kind of team-building Boston Celtics star Kemba Walker and rookie Grant Williams are displaying with the pair living together in Williams’ home-city of Charlotte at Walker’s house–one he bought during his playing days in the Queen City.

Marc Spears of the Undefeated dropped that revelation in a piece highlighting Williams’ work with the MENTOR program in Boston. It was actually Walker’s work with the Boys and Girls Club in Charlotte that made the rookie notice and inspired him.

That’s just the layer of Walker’s leadership with the C’s. His impact indirectly had an effect on six fortunate high school students that are hoping to see Williams in Boston for a night of bowling. Williams, like all of us, is excited for the day that happens.

That the two are so active in the community and presumably active in each other’s lives since the NBA season was suspended on March 11th bodes well for their ability to gel on the court. With both under contract for the long haul, the Celtics are getting an unlikely source of team-building during a prolonged period of isolation.

If–or maybe when, given the optimism from this week’s batch of news–the season returns, the roles played by this pair will be dramatically different. Walker will be leaned on as a top option, while Williams could be squeezed out of the playoff rotation altogether if Brad Stevens wants to lean on the by-then healthy Robert Williams and Enes Kanter for his bench big rotation.

Williams is clearly a high character player, though, and bonding in a big way with the team’s highest paid player and an NBA All-Star starter seems like a good way to buy himself more time with his development. If he is willing to learn how to be a good man from Walker, he will surely be able to glean advice on how to be a professional.

This Boston Celtics bond could help a contracted asset improve, an important development in a time of economic uncertainty for the league. With so much bad news coming everyday about the pandemic we find ourselves trapped in, it’s good to hear that that the C’s are finding unlikely sources of bonding during the most uncertain time in league history.