May 7, 2018; Philadelphia, PA: Boston Celtics co owner Wyc Grousbeck in Game 4 of the second round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center. (Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)
From the NBA Newswire at 985TheSportsHub.com
Though he declined to get into details of why the Celtics’ season ended sooner and more disappointingly than most people expected, owner and governor Wyc Grousbeck admitted to Felger & Mazz on Tuesday that he had trouble loving this past season’s team compared to others.
Asked as part of an end-of-season interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub, Grousbeck was asked if the 2018-19 version of the Celtics was the hardest team for Brad Stevens to coach. Grousbeck could only describe it from his own perspective.
“It was one of the hardest teams to love from my standpoint,” Grousbeck said. “I’d rather answer for myself. I wasn’t coaching them but I was watching them, and it was frustrating. It was a tough year for everybody concerned. I think the fans all feel that and we’re going to just try to make it better. But we all feel that, and man, the highs and lows – it’s been frustrating.”
Dec 19, 2018; Boston, MA: Boston Celtics guard Kyrie Irving talks with head coach Brad Stevens during the second half against the Phoenix Suns at TD Garden. (Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports)
Grousbeck’s frustration refers to the Celtics’ curious ups and downs, resulting in a worse-than-projected 49-33 regular season record. A common criticism in the wake of their lost season was chemistry problems both on the court and in the locker room. Grousbeck explained how he believes that kind of issue is unpredictable.
“You can’t really say beforehand that it’s going to work or not, so we didn’t know going in that we were going to have a chemistry problem,” Grousbeck said. “In fact, we had good chemistry in the playoffs last year. It looked like things were working, then we added more players to the mix – Gordon getting healthier and Kyrie getting healthier coming back from two knee surgeries – we thought it would work better than it did. It’s not like we said ‘The hell with chemistry, we know this was a mess but we’re going to try to get out of it with talent’. We didn’t know it was a mess. It turned out to be, at times, really good – and at times, more of a mess.”
Full Interview: Wyc Grousbeck
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