Jae Crowder wasn’t afraid to speak his mind Tuesday night. The same held true Thursday morning.
Crowder drummed up controversy after the Boston Celtics’ win over the Utah Jazz, calling out Celtics fans for cheering Jazz forward Gordon Hayward and then continuing his rant in a series of angry tweets.
Crowder’s comments forced both head coach Brad Stevens and president of basketball operations Danny Ainge to do some damage control, and at the Celtics’ practice Thursday in Waltham, Mass., it was Crowder’s turn to address the issue.
“I was a little angry after the game, obviously,” Crowder told reporters, via WBZ’s Scott Sullivan. “I felt I had to say that to (the Boston Globe’s) Adam (Himmelsbach) after the game. I probably should have left it right there. I went on Twitter and said what I had to say, and there’s nothing that I regret going back-and-forth with fans on Twitter. That’s how I was feeling at the time.”
The Celtics forward did clear up one since-deleted tweet suggesting he’d have “no problem” leaving Boston and showed gratitude toward the Celtics faithful.
“Obviously I don’t want to leave Boston,” Crowder said. “Obviously I love it here. Obviously the fans have treated me great — no doubt about that. … I really appreciate everything (Celtics fans) have done for me.”
But the 26-year-old still feels the same way about fans cheering for the opposition.
“I still stand behind what I said about how I felt disrespected when (fans) were cheering for Gordon Hayward,” Crowder said. “I live with that. I stand behind that 100 percent as a man, as a basketball player who put my time away from my family for this. I stand behind that.”
So, how did he feel when C’s fans gave impending free agent Kevin Durant a warm welcome at TD Garden last season?
“Yeah, I didn’t like that, either,” Crowder replied.
“I just remember when I got here a couple years ago, and we were however many games under .500, the fans would cheer for us,” he continued. “Not one time did they cheer for another player when they came into town. Things have changed since then — I’m aware of that. But that’s never happened. That’s never happened in an arena I’ve been in. I’ve never been on the road and gotten cheered for or saw any of my teammates get cheered for by the opposing team(‘s fans).
“So, it’s just something different for me that really gets me. I don’t like when they cheer for DeMarcus Cousins. I don’t like when they cheer for Kevin Durant. I don’t think you should do that.”
Thumbnail photo via Nelson Chenault/USA TODAY Sports Images
