FOXBOROUGH — Throughout the Celtics’ run to a 2024 NBA Championship, Ja’Whaun Bentley was a fixture sitting courtside at TD Garden. Bentley has long been an avid C’s fan, and though he plays a different sport, the Patriots linebacker believes there are lessons his own team can take from Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and company. “Congrats to the Celtics, man.
It’s a heck of a run,” Bentley said. “Seeing those guys fight through adversity, fight through all the naysayers. I feel like every week it was something different that (critics) were trying to come up with, just starting different things.
But they kept their head down and focused on the main task and didn’t let any of the outside noise affect what they were doing. “The leadership with Al Horford, JT, JB, all those guys, and the role players they had too: They dominated in their role. I think that’s something any team — not just us — can take from and implement into (their) game.
Whether that’s watching how they do pregame, how they’re keeping their head down just working. I thought it was all just beautiful, and it’s always good to see teams that fight like that reap the benefits.” Bentley appeared in three games as a rookie when the Patriots won a Super Bowl in 2018, and certainly arrived in Foxborough at a time when championships were expected.
Now he believes the Celtics will have to deal with a different type of pressure coming off a title, but a more preferable one. “Expectations are high, but you wouldn’t want it any other way,” Bentley said. “You should thrive when expectations are high.
I feel like a lot of times, people kinda get addicted to being doubted. But when you’re no longer doubted and now you’re expected to do a certain thing or that chip is no longer there, you’ve gotta find that new motivation to just keep going and find different things that you can work on. I think that’s when you figure out what kind of player you really are.
When you don’t really have to listen to anybody talking over you. They’re looking at you like, ‘Hey, you’re a beast.’ Now, you’ve gotta try to be an A-player at all times.
That’s the new challenge.” Read more about the Patriots.
