The Boston Celtics have the front cover of SLAM Magazine this month.
Five of the team’s players grace the front page of SLAM No. 226, with the headline: “Good money: In the Celtics we trust.”
SLAM tweeted out the cover with pictures of each of the five players, along with a nickname for each of them.
Kemba Walker: “The leader.”
Marcus Smart: “The heart and soul.”
Jayson Tatum: “The bucket.”
Jaylen Brown: “The skilled one”
Gordon Hayward: “The X-factor.”
The Celtics have looked like a revitalized team this year, and their unexpected excellence was likely a major reason for the cover granted to the new-look roster.
UConn product Walker is starting the All-Star game. Wings Tatum and Brown are both candidates for the reserve spot.
10-year veteran Hayward is playing the best basketball of his Celtics tenure, and Smart is as ever the heart and soul of the franchise.
The article within addresses the league-wide lower expectations for Boston this season compared to last, and how the team has fed off of that energy.
“We just knew everybody was going to doubt us,” Smart told SLAM’s Alex Squadron. “So for us, it was just coming out and being able to show what we were capable of.”
Another focus is on the upbeat attitude and atmosphere in the locker room driving Boston’s success.
“We’re happy [now]. Everybody’s actually talking to one another,” Smart said. “Last year, we didn’t really talk to each other as much as we do now for whatever reason. Everybody was dealing with their own things personally, so it was kind of hard to sit down with one another and really listen.”
The fact that Boston is not only being considered a contender by the popular hoops-focused publication but worthy of gracing the cover is remarkable — almost as remarkable as the unexpected synergy that has created success out of the ashes of a season best left in the past.
