What Lessons Patriots Captain Took From Celtics’ NBA Title Run

It’s not uncommon for players from different Boston sports teams to support each other, but a New England Patriots captain is drawing inspiration from his favorite club.

Ja’Whaun Bentley and other veterans reported for training camp Tuesday and are prepared to prove the doubters wrong in a season of transition after 20 years with Bill Belichick on the sideline.

Bentley is a huge Boston Celtics fan, so of course, he saw every bit of their NBA championship run, but he also saw lessons he hopes the Patriots can take away from it.

“Congrats to the Celtics, man. Heck of a run. Seeing those guys fight through adversity, fight through all the naysayers and things like that, every week it was something different. People was trying to come up with different things, but they kept their head down and focused on the main task. They didn’t let none of the outside noise kind of affect what they was doing.

“The leadership with Al Horford, (Jayson Tatum), (Jaylen Brown), all those guys and the role players they had too, they dominated in their role, and I feel like that’s something every team, not just us, can take from and kind of implement into our game. Whether that’s watching how they do pregame, how they keeping their head down and just working, I thought it was all just beautiful. It’s always good to see teams that fight like that reap the benefits of that so congrats to them and coach (Joe) Mazzulla, too.”

While New England isn’t as close to winning the Super Bowl as the Celtics were to winning the NBA championship, head coach Jerod Mayo hopes to build a foundation that can set the Patriots up for success in the long run. And they’ll have the support of the C’s and other Boston sports teams along the way.