The Celtics did some major roster restructuring before the season commenced. For starters, they brought in big man Kristap Porzingis over the summer. Another huge addition was the defense machine Jrue Holiday who was traded just a few weeks before the regular season started. The Celtics already had a star-studded roster, and bringing Holiday in would prove to be an issue in regards to deciding who gets to start.

The projected starters before Holiday arrived were Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Al Horford, Jalen Brown, and Porzingis. Tatum saw the issue at hand and called the six of them together for a meeting to address the elephant in the room. We need to understand that being in a team is not a walk in the park. There are certain sacrifices one has to make in order to accommodate one another. And this was exactly what Jrue Holiday did, he stepped down so as to make room for his teammates.

Porzingis’ respect for Holiday grew tremendously

This gesture touched Porzingis, who recalls, “I came out of that meeting, and my respect for him grew tremendously.” In fact, he couldn’t hold himself back and immediately told Holiday how he gained a deeper admiration for him. To Holiday, it did not matter whether he started or not, as long as he contributed to the team in his own way.

Porzingis remembers, “His demeanor in that meeting…he said it, and he meant it, and we knew that he meant it. And being an NBA champion and just having all that experience and coming into a new team, one of the biggest rivals, and just being like that…that also just set the standard for everybody else in that meeting.”

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Holiday was happy that they worked it out before the season started

This was a problem that would’ve cropped up either way. And getting this out of the way early on really strengthened the team chemistry, thanks to Tatum. Holiday, on his part, was just glad that they sorted this matter before the season started instead of ignoring the issue at hand.

The Celtics (11-3) on the other hand, seem to be doing very well this season, currently leading the Atlantic Division and topping the Eastern Conference leaderboards. They had an amazing six-back-to-back winning streak over the last week, until Monday’s 121-118 overtime loss to the Hornets. They will be hosting the Bucks tonight at the TD Garden; this is the first time the two will be meeting this season.

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