{"id":591137,"date":"2026-02-08T20:01:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/591137\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T20:01:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:01:53","slug":"new-celtics-star-very-happy-to-be-with-boston-following-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/591137\/","title":{"rendered":"New Celtics Star &#8216;Very Happy&#8217; To Be With Boston Following Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston Celtics are back at TD Garden tonight for the first time since Sunday, and a lot has changed for them over the last few days.<\/p>\n<p>The Celtics made four trades leading up to Thursday\u2019s NBA Trade Deadline, most notably <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/02\/report-celtics-trade-anfernee-simons-acquire-two-time-all-star-nikola-vucevic-from-bulls\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sending Anfernee Simons<\/a> to the Chicago Bulls for Nikola Vucevic.<\/p>\n<p>While Boston fans and players will <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/02\/why-celtics-will-miss-anfernee-simons-after-bittersweet-trade\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">miss Simons<\/a>, Vucevic seems like a good fit for the team. He\u2019s also happy to finally join the Celtics after years of rumors that he might be traded there.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Friday\u2019s game against the Miami Heat, Vucevic <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NoaDalzell\/status\/2019828778139038086\" rel=\"nofollow\">spoke about his appreciation<\/a> for Boston fans and the city during his <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/02\/nikola-vucevic-addresses-role-ahead-of-celtics-debut\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">introductory press conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nikola Vucevic is very happy to be in Boston: <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always enjoyed playing here against the Celtics and TD Garden \u2014 great fans\u2026 they just respect the game a lot. They cheer for the Celtics, but they respect the opponent as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the years, a lot of talks with me being\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6y3gyKpnFk\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/6y3gyKpnFk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Noa Dalzell \ud83c\udfc0 (@NoaDalzell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NoaDalzell\/status\/2019828778139038086?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always enjoyed playing here against the Celtics and TD Garden \u2014 great fans\u2026 they just respect the game a lot. They cheer for the Celtics, but they respect the opponent as well,\u201d Vucevic told the media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the years, a lot of talks with me being connected to the Celtics. And a lot of times when I was in Boston, just around the city, I hear fans telling me to come here. And so it happened now, and I\u2019m very happy, and I\u2019m just gonna try to do the best I can to help the team,\u201d the veteran center added.<\/p>\n<p>Now in his 15th NBA season, Vucevic knows Boston fairly well, especially after spending his entire career in the Eastern Conference. Including the playoffs, the two-time All-Star has already played 47 career games against the Celtics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Now, he is one.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Celtics are back at TD Garden tonight for the first time since Sunday, and a lot&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,6,3853],"class_list":{"0":"post-591137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nikola-vucevic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116036799282413743","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}