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Sullinger was the Celtics’ best player this preseason — a surprise as their most efficient 3-point shooter, their one dominant rebounder, their most balanced scorer. This fall marks a recovery after a tough second season that was, for Sullinger, a wake-up call.
“It was stuff I was doing on the court. Antics I don’t normally do, I was doing last year,” Sullinger said. “To get away from that I had to change my mindset and play better. Yeah I was surprised, because there were times when I was just out of line. Not out of line in the sense of acting crazy, but out of line because I was not myself. The more and more I watched film, the more I realized I can do better.”
Jared Sullinger Starts Over-Mark Murphy
Much of the media’s focus this offseason has been centered around Rajon Rondo. Danny Ainge has said that he thinks RR is going to have the best year of his career. Well I think Jared Sullinger is about to have himself a hell of a season too. Sully worked hard this offseason to come into camp in good shape, trading some pounds for a leaner appearance.
Sullinger says that last season was filled with frustration for him. During his two seasons at Ohio State, Sully’s squads lost a total of 11 games. The Celtics were losing that many a month. Couple that with some nagging injuries and a negative state of mind, and Sully was not in a good place. Thankfully, his family was there to help him get back on the right track. But it wasn’t his dad Satch who dealt out the tough love this time. It was his 28-year-old brother Julian.
With Julian, nothing is ever positive with him. The beautiful part about it is that when it comes to basketball, he knows that enough people already give me a lot of positivity. The negativity part is what keeps you going, and that’s the happy balance I have with my brothers.”
Julian was particularly blunt following his little brother’s performance during a 106-79 Celtics loss last Dec. 22 in Indiana. Jared had six points and two rebounds in 16 ineffective minutes. The family waited in the arena as Julian met Jared outside the locker room.
“He just said, ‘You didn’t look like yourself. You didn’t look like you wanted to be out there. You looked like you were ready for Christmas break to begin, and you looked like you just gave up on basketball,’ ” Sullinger says now. “He was real tough on me.”
Julian felt he had no choice.
“I saw a guy who was disinterested in spurts of the game,” he said. “He was getting away from the team concept. When he does well I tell him, but if not I let him know that, too.”
The future looks bright for Sully. He just wrapped up a fantastic preseason, and is getting ready to embark on his third season in the NBA. His game has improved each year, despite being moved from the bench to the starting lineup and vice versa. He’s seen quite a bit of adversity too-on and off the court. My guess is that it’s only made him stronger. And with a great family support system, composed primarily of his dad and brothers Julian and James, he’s got fantastic folks in his corner. I’m really excited to see Sully go to work. It starts this Wednesday night at TD Garden.
On Page 2, Steez preparing for first season in China
Jordan Crawford’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers are off to a 3-0 start in the preseason, and Steez has wasted no time getting involved. He scored a team-high 33 points in their 99-94 win over Quincy Douby’s Tianjin Lions. The regular season starts next week.
The rest of the links:
Herald: New-Look NBA: TV Money Changing League Landscape|ESPN Boston: Three’s A Charm For Celtics?|Eagle-Tribune: Meet The 2014-15 Boston Celtics|FiveThirtyEight: NBA Preview
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