Christmas Relishing His Shot with Celtics
(Dionte) Christmas will have to earn his spot on the roster like everybody else, but should he fall short of that goal he could join the Maine Red Claws and be a mere injury away from helping the Boston team (not uncommon for the Celtics in recent seasons). But he’s adopting a mindset built around the belief that he will make the final squad. As hard as he was working prior to signing his contract, the new deal has motivated him to take the step beyond making the roster and contribute once the season begins.
“This is even more motivation. Before, my motivation was just to get to this point, but now my motivation is to, first of all, just stay on the team and, second of all, just help the team out in any way possible,” said Christmas, who went undrafted in 2009. “I know the history of the Boston Celtics and I know what Doc Rivers expects out of his players. My motivation is to go in there and just try my best to get some playing time and show Doc (Rivers) and show Danny Ainge that I can be a great asset to the team, and that I can help out more than in practice and things like that.
“That’s my motivation right now. I’m just going to take it one day at a time, step-by-step. My first step is to go into camp and just play hard, just play 110 percent, like I did at summer league, and make those guys not regret their decision on giving me this contract,” he said.
Loading ...
