Grant Williams sends sad message about not getting Boston Celtics tribute

Grant Williams was not happy that his TD Garden return didn't include a tribute from the Boston Celtics organization -- sharing his sadness with not getting a similar tribute to a Marcus Smart but being grateful they at least welcomed him at all.

“As much as I was involved in the community, loved Boston, and the organization, I think they were just trying to be consistent with what they had done prior,” Williams said (h/t Boston.com). “Was I a little bit disappointed? Yeah, just because I feel like there were some great years in those four years I was there. I was a kid when I was drafted there and I was a kid that grew up there. Hopefully, I was able to help go through things that helped them get to the point where they are now.

“You’ve got to have some gratitude because they could’ve just not done anything. Even though it was just a, ‘Thank you, Grant,’ that’s something that could be standard across the league. But it definitely kind of surprised me.”

Grant Williams' Boston Celtics tenure doesn't get respect it deserved

Williams never developed into the sixth man extraordinaire the Celtics were looking for in their 2019 first-round pick, but he was a useful contributor that always shot well in the postseason. He never got to be what Sam Hauser has become, but he did contribute to four straight winning seasons; with three of them seeing Boston come away with a top seed in the Eastern Conference.

With the "annoying" allegations Mike Gorman assigned to him, Williams' time in green may never get the respect it deserves. But given the even worse stories of his time with the Dallas Mavericks -- that resulted in a midseason trade to the Charlotte Hornets -- Williams' Celtics tenure may be a footnote in his story when it's all said and done.