BRIGHTON, Mass. — u200bu200bWhen Jaden Springer was a little kid, he was really bad at basketball.
“I was terrible,” Springer told me after a rigorous day of Celtics training camp, laughing. “Like really, I was terrible.”
It’s the first time I’ve heard an NBA player describe themselves as such. Just last week, Lonnie Walker IV told Celtics reporters that he’s been a bucket-getter since the womb, explicitly stating:
“My pacifier was a basketball.”
For Springer, the talent wasn’t quite as natural, rather borne out of an extreme love for the game that was there from the jump.