It is sometimes said that one cannot go home again, but when it comes to playing for a new ball club in the NBA, you can — but you had better not be nostalgic about it, or you will get your posterior handed to you by your former teammates. And that is exactly the sort of dynamic that new Boston Celtics forward Chris Boucher was hoping to dodge when the Celtics took on the Raptors in road preseason action on Friday (Oct. 10).
And while Boston did not win the game, Boucher had something of a revenge game nonetheless, putting up a team-high 19 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and a block in 23 minutes of playing time vs. Toronto. The Castries, Santa Lucia native spoke to the media after the 107-105 loss, and Boucher admitted he went out of his way to avoid being friendly with his former team pregame when asked if it was odd wearing a Celtics uniform in Scotiabank Arena.
“I mean, wearing green was not weird,” he explained via CLNS Media. “It’s more the entrance— seeing my teammate on the other side, kind of. I even joked around on one occasion on the timeout. I was like, ‘Oh, wrong side of the bench, just because it just kind of played in my head that I’m on a different team.’ But the goal is still the same.”
Boucher admitted he was nervous coming back to the team he forged a home in the NBA playing for. When asked why, he replied, “I think it’s more like kind of realizing it’s a different situation. For seven years, you feel like you’ve always been in the same position.”
“So when you walk in a new situation, you don’t really know what’s going to happen. So I think that’s something that kind of makes you nervous a little bit. But you also kind of have to realize, okay, I’ve been there before … And you kind of figure out ways to go back to what you know.”
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