Celtics Role Player Ready To ‘Make Another Statement’ This Season

The Boston Celtics will celebrate their 2024 NBA title one more time before embarking on their quest to repeat.

The league’s most decorated franchise will raise its 18th championship banner to the TD Garden rafters on Tuesday night before kicking off the 2024-25 NBA season against the New York Knicks. During the pregame ceremony, Celtics players will receive their championship rings before turning their attention to the new season.

“It’s just a great accomplishment that we get to relive — be one hell of a night,” Celtics guard Payton Pritchard told reporters after practice on Monday, per team-provided video. “But then, we talked about this, it’s like, we can do it again. We got to reshift our focus. Greatness is not being able to do it once, but multiple times.”

The Celtics cruised through the regular season last year and went 16-3 in the playoffs to capture the title. Pritchard believes Boston will be able to remain just as focused this season as it tries to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a challenge at all,” Pritchard said. “I feel like every game we play we want to win. So you get the rings, and then we want to go out and prove that we’re ready to make another statement.

Pritchard added: “A lot of people can do it once. I know a championship’s hard, but there’s a lot of people that have won one. Winning it multiple times and creating almost a dynasty, that’s hard to do. That’s greatness, and that’s something we’re trying to achieve.”