Brandon Bass has never been known as a vocal leader, but as one of the longest-tenured members on the Celtics, he has finally felt it necessary to speak up.
In the wake of Celtics forward Gerald Wallace calling out his teammates following Sunday’s preseason game, saying that the team was “selfish” and “not playing with effort” after the loss to the Timberwolves, the Celtics responded with one of their best practices of camp on Tuesday. Yet while Wallace refused to back down from his criticism, Bass played “good cop” to Wallace’s “bad cop.”
“I hope everybody got the message, you know what I’m saying?” Bass told reporters. “And just as individuals come out and give maximum effort, and that way we look good as a group. I don’t think we should point the finger at anybody. I just think each individual should get the message from those guys moving forward.
“Hopefully, we stick together, because we don’t have any room for having groups and cliques of people that’s feeling a certain kind of way. We’ve got to kind of stick together.”
Bass, who admits he is not much of a talker, has already spoken up more this season than in his previous two seasons combined with the Celtics. The ninth-year veteran clearly does not disagree with Wallace’s assessment of the team’s play thus far, but it is interesting to see how the Louisiana native’s laid-back approach as a veteran leader has differed from the Alabama’s native’s fiery demeanor.
