Ah, NBA summer league, the preferred July activity of highly touted draft picks, young players looking for extra seasoning, undrafted rookies and Keith Bogans.
Wait, what was that last part?
Yes, the 35-year-old Bogans is participating in summer league with the Portland Trail Blazers this month as a last-gasp effort to revitalize an NBA career that crumbled following his trade to the Boston Celtics two years ago. And while he’s there, the veteran guard wants to clear a few things up.
Speaking with reporters over the weekend in Las Vegas, Bogans addressed his unceremonious departure from the Celtics.
Bogans, who was acquired from the Brooklyn Nets in the Kevin Garnett/Paul Pierce trade, was set to make $5.05 million during the 2013-14 season as an end-of-the-bench player on a young, rebuilding Celtics squad. He was unhappy with that role, however, and was excused from the team in January 2014 after appearing in just six games.
Bogans was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in September and then to the Philadelphia 76ers, who waived him. He has not played in an NBA game since.
But Bogans said over the weekend that despite his concerns over playing time, he never demanded a trade from the Celtics.
“To be honest with you, I don’t know what happened,” he said, via The Boston Globe. “I was there and then I was gone. I don’t want to get into all that. (Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge) gave me a leave of absence and I never returned to Boston, and that’s the first time something like that has ever happened in my career.”
There also was a report of Bogans getting into a heated argument with Celtics coach Brad Stevens on the team bus, which he denied.
“That was totally made up. I read that story and that was a lie,” Bogans told reporters. “Everything I read in the paper was a lie. I never talked to you (reporters). So for you all to speculate and say I blew up on the bus, I felt bad about that because that was all lies and that made me look bad with the rest of the NBA community.”
He added that he shook hands with Ainge and Stevens upon seeing them in Vegas and holds no ill will toward the Celtics.
The public perception regarding Bogans’ exit from Boston damaged his reputation, he says, and is part of the reason he’s back in summer league, playing with players 15 years his junior and seeking a second chance.
“Of course, for a guy who’s been around the league as long as I have, I’ve stuck on every team I went to, I’ve never had a confrontation, don’t get in trouble, and to go to a young team and you ask me to go home, that looks bad on my resúmé,” Bogans told reporters. “It looked like I didn’t want to be there, where the whole time all I wanted to do was help. Of course that makes me mad. The way it ended, that’s not me, and I can’t let my career end that way.”
Bogans did not see the floor Saturday during the Blazers’ 85-76 loss to the Celtics. He played 15 minutes Sunday in his summer league debut, finishing with zero points, two rebounds, one assist and four fouls in a 93-80 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
Thumbnail photo via Howard Smith/USA TODAY Sports Images
