Jonas Knox: “Those Celtics just never get any free agents! No one wants to play in Boston! Um, Kemba Walker is on his way to Boston to finalize a four-year max deal with the Celtics. That narrative is finally dying before your very eyes. Kyrie Irving is just a pain in the a**. How many times do you need to get away from a situation because it’s not working out before somebody finally raises their hand and goes ‘Hey, maybe it’s YOU that’s not working. That’s not a reflection of Boston.”
Listen to Jonas Knox explain why the ongoing media narrative of the Celtics’ inability to attract top flight free agents to Boston has finally been extinguished, with three-time All-Star point guard Kemba Walker expected to sign a four-year, $141 million deal with the Celtics when free agency kicks off Sunday at 6pm, ET.
Boston had long carried this stench with it around the league as a free agent destination that the game’s best players never paid serious attention to. Kevin Garnett, most notably, was against the idea of living in Boston when the Celtics’ ‘Big Three of Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce was first being conceived.
Eventually, Garnett embraced his experience with the city and greatly altered its reputation from some of its more forgettable attributes.
However, with the storied 2019 free agent class unanimously leaving the Celtics’ name out on the rumored destinations of players like Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, and Anthony Davis (2020), coupled with the Celtics' exodus of Al Horford and Kyrie Irving, the tires were once again kicking on the anti-Boston sentiment.
Check out the audio below as Jonas says Walker’s signing could change the negative perception once again.