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The day after the press conference, The Athletic reported through an unnamed source that the Blazers had commissioned a former FBI investigator to retrace the case, which, according to the report, involved re-interviewing witnesses and watching tapes of past interviews. The police department in Waltham, Massachusetts, the Boston suburb where the alleged rape occurred, said it had received just one recent inquiry regarding Billups. That request came from Dave Hallman, who runs the Oregon-based security firm Alder Group. Hallman didn’t respond to calls and written questions from OPB. According to his website, Hallman is a former FBI agent whose firm specializes in due diligence backgrounding, professional sports risk management and pre-draft backgrounding for professional sports teams.
But something seemed to have shifted by September. Some around the organization believe the opening of the team’s gleaming new practice facility had a significant impact. The Celtics’ previous setup, at the Boston Sports Club in Waltham, was essentially an eyesore. Also, in September Irving resumed playing five-on-five pickup games with his Celtics teammates, and perhaps those helped remind him how immensely talented this team is.
Danny Ainge spent Tuesday working at the team’s near-empty Waltham practice facility. There were no players there, mostly because of the snowstorm that pounded the region, but partly because few players are able to do much on the court right now. “I’m healthy,” Ainge said by phone Tuesday night. “I might have to sign a 10-day [contract].”
Kyrie Irving sits on a bench at the Celtics practice facility in Waltham, explaining how he came to the decision that it was time for him to get out of Cleveland. "[Leaving] was inevitable," he says in his first extensive comments since the trade. "I could feel it."
The Boston Celtics will hold training camp at Salve Regina University for the first time since Brad Stevens' rookie year as a coach, a noteworthy decision after Stevens supported a move back to the team's Waltham practice facility three years ago. Under Doc Rivers, the Celtics regularly held their first handful of practices at the Newport, RI, college. But after sticking with the tradition during his first season on the Celtics sideline, Stevens decided to move training camp back to the team's Waltham practice facility. The Celtics held camp there for each of the last three seasons before opting to return to Salve Regina this fall. They will hold media day Sept. 25 in Canton before practicing at the RI college from Sept. 26-28.
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He showed up at his old haunt, the Boston Celtics practice facility in Waltham, Massachusetts, wearing a throwback Inglewood T-shirt and a pair of Brooklyn Nets basketball shorts. "Hey Danny, see this?'' said Paul Pierce, tugging at the silver and black of the Nets. "This is where you sent me!"
Mark Murphy: Ainge still not sure of when or where Celtics will work out Markelle Fultz, but the goal is to bring top pick prospect to Waltham.
“I think that’s the difference between me and other people,” Thomas told me as we sat in an office at the Celtics practice facility in Waltham, Massachusetts. “Some people’s opportunity comes and they waste it, because they’re not ready for that moment. I remember Jason Terry always telling me, ‘Opportunity doesn’t go away, it goes to somebody else.’ You just gotta be ready for that moment. To this day, I’ve always been ready for the moment that came my way.”
The Celtics will gather tomorrow at their practice facility in Waltham for Media Day. It is a perfectly fine home for the club, a private section of a larger building that includes a health club and medical facilities. But in the ever growing and modernizing NBA sphere, the footprint no longer measures up to the Celts’ needs. So, as announced earlier this year, the club is expecting to move into a new building at Boston Landing in 2018. Groundbreaking for the development, between the Bruins’ new practice rink and the New Balance Building hard by the Mass. Pike, will come later this fall.
“I think it was clearly deserved. I think that you could make a strong case for him to be Defensive Player of the Year or in consideration for that because he is so versatile in his ability to defend guards,” Stevens said after the second of two pre-draft workouts Monday in Waltham.
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Still, behind closed doors in the Celtics training facility in Waltham, there was disappointment. But there was no cursing Isaiah Thomas for being in the lottery room in New York and not bringing home the big prize. “There were some groans. I think the buildup, once we weren’t sixth and we weren’t five and we weren’t four, there was a lot of hope that we could get a good pick,” Ainge said. “But we’ll take it. We’ll give Isaiah a passing grade. We’ll keep him.”
An aside here: One day this writer bumped into Ainge at a fast-food joint near the Celtics' practice facility in Waltham, Massachusetts. As he made his way through the cafeteria-style line where they were building his burrito bowl, a not-bashful store employee kept telling Ainge that he should trade Rondo to the Sacramento Kings -- and Isaiah Thomas was one of the names the employee mentioned getting in return. The people in Boston's front office often stress that Ainge takes all advice into consideration and maybe even those outside the organization, too.
Tuesday, fellow veteran Jameer Nelson joined Bass, stating he would like more minutes. “Obviously you want guys to be comfortable in the role that they play on the team, to get that experience, especially the young guys. But also the veterans,” Nelson told reporters in Waltham before Tuesday’s practice. “I mean, I’ve never been on a team where I’ve played 14 or 15 minutes. To be honest, it’s hard to go out there and be who I am with 14 minutes.
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