BOSTON — Kemba Walker knew he did the right thing, but he was still devastated.
Evan Fournier was struggling to make it down the floor after tweaking his ankle late in the fourth quarter, and Ime Udoka was yelling at the Celtics to push hard on the break. The Knicks were exposed, Fournier was hurt, and somebody needed to foul to stop the play.
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As the ballhandler came toward Walker, he had to commit the foul. He always does the right thing for his team, even when it costs him. It’s never a hard decision for him. Maybe it would have been had he realized he had five fouls.
“I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t know I had five,” Walker said. “But I heard them on the sideline, they told me to foul. Very, very unfortunate situation, but that’s what I was told to do.”
It was unfortunate because this was his night. That was going to be his moment of bittersweet revenge against the franchise he loved and loved him back but still left him scorned.
He had 29 points coming into the fourth quarter after a scorching run after halftime. The depleted Celtics had been dominating the Knicks throughout the first half, then Walker had suddenly flipped the game on its head, as he always did before knee injuries derailed his career in Boston.
He had been scoreless in the fourth as the Celtics regained control, but Walker knew he was going to do something in crunch time. He just didn’t get the opportunity to do it against Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and the rest of the Celtics brethren he was forced to leave behind this summer.
“Those are my brothers,” Walker said after the Celtics held on for the 114-107 win Saturday. “Love playing against those guys, man. Those dudes are so competitive. I knew they wanted to come at me, and I wanted to go at them as well. Those are my brothers, man. Love those dudes.”
It had been 10 games since Walker had last stepped on the floor, but the Knicks got hit with COVID-19 protocol absences and, suddenly, he catapulted from basketball purgatory to starting again.
While he was in disbelief over his final foul, what made the night special was how he reacted the first time fouls sent him to the bench. Just four minutes into the game, he had already been taking every shot he could find.
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But he wasn’t angry that he had been banished to the back of the bench. He was mad because his first stint on the floor had been cut short by two fouls. He was cooking, or at least trying to get the pan heated up. Walker wasn’t going to waste his chance to wear a Knicks jersey again, especially in his return to the place from which he was traded earlier this year.
Since Walker was last a Celtic, he got bought out by the Thunder after the Al Horford trade, signed with the Knicks to be their starting point guard, then scored a career-low 11.7 points per game before coach Tom Thibodeau said it was time for him to sit and watch. So Walker came out firing Saturday night, ready to get out three weeks’ worth of shots in as many minutes as he could squeeze from this second chance.
“I hate it. I want to play. It is what it is,” Walker said. “Guys went down. I got to fill in. Do what I can until they get back.”
He didn’t want anything getting in his way, but two fouls meant going back to that bench he wanted to escape so badly. It’s why, when he returned to the floor five minutes later, he went right to his midrange pull-up and buried it. In this game, he was going to find his shot and take it, regardless of the outcome. He wasn’t going to waste a moment on the floor not trying to put his imprint on the game. Though he didn’t hit his stride until his explosive third quarter, he was enjoying every moment back on the floor in a special place for him.
“It felt great. It felt great,” said Walker. “There was a lot of love from the fans, which I really, really appreciated. My two years here in Boston was really special. I met a lot of great people.”
Though the whole arena was sarcastically waving Walker goodbye as he went to the bench for good, he still fondly remembered all the good times he had playing at the Garden.
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“The fans always treated me well,” Walker said. “The whole city has always treated me well. So, it was really nice to be back.”
But the people left behind and cherished the most were his teammates, obviously. Walker deified Smart every time he was asked about his defense and hustle during their time together. Walker was always Brown’s biggest believer, effusively praising every little development Brown made as he turned into an All-Star with Walker feeding him the ball. Then there was Tatum, Walker’s dinner partner on the road, who was always by his side.
“Smart, JB and JT, man, we still talk all the time. Those are my brothers. Those are my brothers,” Walker said. “Smart came to my sister’s wedding. JT was supposed to be there, but he had USA basketball. JB, he — those are like literally my little bros right there, so it was great to see those guys.”
Those bonds aren’t a reminder just of the perennial All-Star Walker was when he first got to Boston but also the unflappably positive and determined person he’s been in the face of increasing adversity in the years that have followed.
“It’s definitely been a rough couple years, to be honest,” Walker said. “But, when you get a chance to kind of slow down and think about things, myself, you know, I think it’s just some adversity. At some point in life, everyone goes through tough times. I’ve had a great career thus far, and a lot of things went my way. It’s a tough time right now, so it’s really about just showing my character, showing who I really am.”
This was the night he got to show who he always has been. He’s been struggling for enough time to know he can’t perform night in and night out at the level he did for so long. But he can still have these nights when he brings back the old Kemba and it’s enough for his team to have a serious chance at winning.
Doing it in Boston made it all the sweeter. But when Walker heard the bench call out to foul, he listened as he always does and the finish he envisioned was cut short. Like it has been with Walker these past few years, in the end, it was bittersweet.
(Photo of Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum: Brian Babineau / NBAE via Getty Images)
Jared Weiss is a staff writer covering the Boston Celtics and NBA for The Athletic. He has covered the Celtics since 2011, co-founding CLNS Media Network while in college before covering the team for SB Nation's CelticsBlog and USA Today. Before coming to The Athletic, Weiss spent a decade working for the government, primarily as a compliance bank regulator. Follow Jared on Twitter @JaredWeissNBA
