March 21, 2026, 5:22 p.m. ET
Ever since the Boston Celtics drafted him out of Arkansas, the word on Jordan Walsh’s development was patience, given how young the Texan wing was when the Celtics took him (just 19 years old). But three years later, we are starting to see the outline of the NBA player he is becoming—a powerfully disruptive defender capable of sinking a corner 3 or crashing the cup off a cut.
But for Walsh, his own patience for being a perpetual work in progress is waning — and when we see what he has been capable of when given free rein to dip into his nascent skills, it is an understandable position. “My competitiveness is at a different level,” said Walsh in a recent interview with WBUR. “I hate losing. Ping pong, basketball, video games, whatever it is.”
“I absolutely hate losing, and I hate, although I’ve been an underdog for so long, I hate being the underdog because I want people to know that this guy is who he thinks he is,” said Walsh. “He is here for a reason.”
“I don’t want to be always looked at as ‘He’s a young guy who’s got time,” Walsh continued. “‘He’s got time.’ I want to turn the page; I want to turn the corner and start changing it. ‘Oh, he’s not a young guy. He’s a guy who can play.'” For some, it might be far too soon to start thinking about his NBA legacy, given he’s barely secured a spot in it—but not for Walsh.
“It’s like a legacy,” he explained. “It’s after you’re done playing the game, people will know you not by just kind of what you’ve done on the court, but also off the court and the community stuff that I do. It’s also leaving a legacy for somebody else to follow, set an example for people who are like me. (Or) are similar to me. Or in similar situations so that they have a path already set for them that they can follow to do the same thing.”
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“And maybe even make that path a little bit (shorter) for the next person,” said Walsh.
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