BOSTON - It won't rival that of the New England Patriots season ticket holder open practice, but the Boston Celtics had a nice turnout for their open practice at the TD Garden Tuesday night.
Both sides of the lower bowl were filled, along with the first couple sections on each baseline as fans got to watch 24 minutes of basketball. Team White, which featured players including Evan Turner, Tyler Zeller, David Lee, Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley, beat Team Green, which featured players including Amir Johnson, Jonas Jerebko, Jae Crowder, Kelly Olynyk and Isaiah Thomas, by a score of 63-59.
Team Green also included Celtics rookie Terry Rozier, who took a moment to thank the crowd for coming out after the game.
Rozier called for the fans' attention as the Garden was pretty loud upon the scrimmage ending, but once he had the floor to himself he began.
"I'm Terry Rozier and I just want to say thank you from me and behalf of my teammates for coming up here to cheer us on. Hopefully you all will cheer us on to another championship this year. Appreciate you all coming out. Thank you."
A championship this season is quite a lofty goal, but that's the attitude you want from the young guys.
It was also more than enough to get the fans going, as they began chanting "Let's go Celtics" as the team walked off the court.
Prior to the game, Steven explained why Rozier was chosen to speak.
"They said somebody needs to address the crowd," Stevens said. "I thought it would be a great opportunity for him to say thank you. First year I was here, they had the young guys introduce everybody and I wasn’t sure if they knew everybody. So we decided that that was probably not the best idea. They’re still learning and growing. Their head’s spinning anyways. So I think he’ll be settled down enough to say thank you. He’s a good guy. I think people will enjoy having him in Boston."
With that championship mindset already, Rozier is off to a good start.