Avery Bradley, Courtney Lee, Dionte Christmas, and Kris Joseph at the Summer Soiree

Ben Rohrbach caught up with Avery Bradley at the team's Summer Soiree where he, Courtney Lee, Kris Joseph and Dionte Christmas all sat on a panel to answer questions for those in attendance. He stressed the family atmosphere on the Celtics and that the team is like a family where they all hang out and go to each others houses. He was excited for the new additions to the team and stated that Danny always does a great job of finding guys who fit with the Celtics family.

“You guys are going to be happy once we start that first day of training camp because all we want to do is win,” he added. “We’re a family. We don’t care about anything but winning. To be part of a team like that, it makes you feel comfortable, because there’s no pressure. You’re not going out there worrying about scoring or doing things you can’t do. You do your role and everything else will work itself out and we’ll win games.”

He said he is taking it day by day with his rehab and is hoping to be able to participate in his first ever full training camp. He was recovering from an ankle injury his first season and there was the lockout his second season and so this will be his first chance to experience training camp if he can be ready to play by that time.

He wanted to keep playing last season but realized that he had to do what was good for the team and for his future and knew that if he continued to play it might have affected this season as well.

He had a few KG stories to tell also. KG stories are always fun!

One day, KG saw me on the bus,” he said. “I had my hoodie on. I was a little down. I wasn’t playing. He could tell I wasn’t the same Avery, always smiling but shy, and he told me, ‘You know what? I was sitting back in my room last night watching tapes of you in high school. If you continue to work how hard you work every day and never give up, the way you played in high school, you’ll play in the NBA.’”

“Then, one day I’m on the bus after a game and all KG said was, ‘I told you,’” added Bradley. “At first I had no clue what he was talking about. He always sits in the back of the bus and tells his stories, and he’s like, ‘I told you that. If you continue to work … hard work always pays off.’ Coming from KG, that made me feel good and made me want to keep working, so I can be like him.”

As I have said before, KG's return is great because he proved last season he is still a formidable player but it's also great for the effect he can have on the team's younger players. He's a great mentor and will help these kids grow and become better players just because they have the opportunity to play with him. But Avery's stories about KG weren't all warm and fuzzy. He talked about his first year and how scared he was of having KG yell at him.

“I didn’t want to get in, because I was so scared of KG [Kevin Garnett] yelling at me if I messed up. I would sit on the sideline. I might not even get in the whole practice, because I didn’t want KG to yell at me.”

And Avery is ready to pick up where he left off last season, doing whatever he can to help the team win. Hopefully he will be ready for training camp or the start of the season because he is a big part of what the Celtics are building.

“I’m just going into next season accepting my role,” he added. “Whatever my team needs me to do, that’s what I’m going to do. Whether it’s score, play defense, not starting — anything, it doesn’t matter. We’re all about winning games, and I’m going to be open to whatever my team needs me to do.”

And that's why the Celtics will win this season. Danny has brought in a whole team with this attitude. No egos and no agendas. Like Avery, they all want to do whatever it will take to win. Here's the video, in case you missed it.

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