Brad Stevens sees advantages to World Cup experience for his Celtics

Brad Stevens said he has no issue with nearly half of his team playing high-level basketball so close to training camp, despite the risk of injury.
Brad Stevens said he has no issue with nearly half of his team playing high-level basketball so close to training camp, despite the risk of injury.(FILE/TIM BRADBURY/GETTY IMAGES)

Brad Stevens’s day started off with angst. As he entered Boston Children’s Hospital to help usher the opening of the Fazzalari Sky Bridge, he watched on his phone as star forward Jayson Tatum was being helped off the floor in Shanghai after spraining his left ankle for Team USA.

A few minutes later, he received a relieving text from Tatum telling the coach the injury wasn’t severe.

Several hours later, as Stevens teamed with former Celtics and current Clippers coach Doc Rivers for the ABCD Hoop Dreams charity event at Auerbach Center, he joked and smiled, at ease with Tatum’s status and rooting on his six players playing in the World Cup.

 

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