How Payton Pritchard Stayed Motivated During Transition To Celtics

The NBA had one of the shortest offseasons in league history in 2020 after COVID-19 forced the league to shut down indefinitely in March.

Once the NBA finals ended in October, it was crunch time. And that left teams to make some decisions on the fly.

One of the Boston Celtics’ decisions already appears to be paying off: drafting Payton Pritchard.

Reality hit the 24-year-old pretty quickly, though, with the 2020-21 NBA season beginning just over a month after the draft. This, of course, gave Pritchard little time to prepare.

But the rookie managed to find a bright side to the situation anyhow.

“You know, the season started so fast,” Pritchard said, via the team. “I had to move right away. It was different but it was kind of nice, you know? I got in the flow of things right away because I had to. Now, it is a challenge being away from family, being from the West Coast and moving to the East Coast. But it’s a new experience, and I’m growing as a person. And so, I look at it as a challenge.”

Pritchard has fit in nicely with the Celtics. He is averaging 7.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists off of Boston’s bench and shooting 45.7% from the field.

We think he’s tackled the challenge pretty well so far.