Celtics players react to Durant decision: ‘We’ve just got to move on’
Some of the younger members of the Celtics weren’t involved in the pitch process for Kevin Durant over the weekend, but, like the rest of the NBA world, they spent the past two days waiting for the superstar’s decision.
“I figured it was coming today,” second-year guard R.J. Hunter said Monday. “It was so built up to whatever happened.”
While the Celtics’ organization was not pleased to find out the superstar free agent had opted to join the Golden State Warriors over Boston and four other teams on Monday, Hunter did enjoy learning about the team’s pitch to Durant, highlighted by the presence of Tom Brady in the meeting.
“All I heard was their experience with Tom Brady, so I didn’t really get a lot about the meeting,” Hunter explained. “It was like, ‘Yeah, the meeting was cool, but Tom, bro.’ [My teammates] all posted Instagrams. I was kind of jealous. I wanted one. [Tom] had the button-up and everything. It was cool, man. That would have been huge for my Instagram.”
With Durant in the rearview mirror, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge still has work ahead of him during the free agency period to shape next year’s roster. In the meantime, Terry Rozier doesn’t hold any ill will toward Durant for his choice.
“I wouldn’t say it’s disappointing. He’s got to make his decision,” Rozier said. “If that’s what he feels is the right fit for him then good luck to him next season. But we’ve just got to move on. We’ve got to get ready for next year as well. We’ve got to make sure we find our fits to get ready to make the playoffs and stuff like that and have a successful season. So we’ve just got to move on and keep building.”
Hunter echoed those sentiments.
“It’s his decision and we can only control what we can control, so we’ve got to move on from it.”
Some members of the Durant recruiting team — notably, Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder — also chimed in on Twitter on Monday, posting a couple tweets that were likely aimed at Durant electing to team up with the best regular-season team in NBA history.
https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/750035381869883392
https://twitter.com/CJC9BOSS/status/750010206617153536
While Durant fever in Boston will now be put on hold for at least one more summer, the entire ordeal was a learning process for youngsters like Rozier.
“Free agency, I didn’t know it was this crazy,” he said. “It’s kind of crazy. It’s a lot of things going on, especially on the first day when it starts, but it’s a lot of fun. You wonder who’s gonna leave your team, who’s coming to you, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. There’s a lot of business moves being made, but it’s a lot of fun.”
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