Jared Sullinger is officially done playing, and for Celtics fans, the announcement brings back a familiar little tug of regret. The former Boston big man said yesterday that he’s retiring from professional basketball, closing the book on a career that stretched well beyond the NBA. After his last league appearance in 2017, Sullinger kept playing overseas in China, Korea and Puerto Rico, and in his farewell message he made sure to thank the people and teams that shaped his journey, including the Celtics.
Boston responded in kind, congratulating him 10 years after he left the franchise and wishing him well in what comes next.
What makes Sullinger such an interesting Celtics footnote is that he wasn’t some cautionary tale of bad behavior or a locker-room headache. He was productive across four seasons in Boston.
The frustration came from the gap between what he could do and what his body let him do. Sullinger had real NBA skills: he rebounded, he understood the game, and he could work in the post.
The problem was staying in shape over the course of a season, and that never seemed to fully happen in Boston. There were good stretches, sure, but the weight concerns followed him, and the Celtics clearly never fully trusted him because of it.
The rest of the league didn’t either. He lasted just one more year in the NBA, which is why the lingering question is so easy to ask: what if he had gotten his act together in Boston?
That question hits harder when you remember how promising his Celtics start actually was. His rookie season wasn’t about flash.
It was about being ready. He came in and immediately looked like a legitimate NBA body down low, helping on the glass and in the paint.
For a player who carried the reputation of being a little heavy, he looked trim and mobile early on.
That first season ended because of a back injury, and that wasn’t exactly a mystery to anyone - the issue was known before he was drafted. But even after that, Sullinger kept showing enough skill and basketball IQ to suggest a long career was there for the taking.
The issue was always the same: he was naturally a big guy, and in Boston he never seemed to make quite enough effort to keep the weight down. It’s a shame, because for a while it was easy to imagine him as part of the Celtics’ future.
His career did improve physically once he went overseas, but by then the NBA had moved on. Toronto took a chance on him, then sent him mid-season to a Phoenix team that had no use for him, and that was essentially the end of his league runway.
Sullinger was never headed for Celtics legend status, but he did spend four years in Boston as a player fans could root for. That matters.
Not every remembered Celtic has to be a star or a champion. Isaiah Thomas was there for only two and a half years and still gets remembered fondly despite never winning a title.
Sullinger’s case is different, but the idea is the same: with better conditioning, he might have been the kind of useful, dependable player fans look back on more warmly. Not a franchise-changing force, just someone who could have meant a lot on some Celtics playoff teams.
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Celtics Have One Roster Battle That Matters More Than It Should
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Boston already has two of its three two-way contracts spoken for, so the last opening carries a little more weight than it might on a deeper roster. Uzan is in the mix with forward Tucker DeVries, and the Celtics current roster makeup could end up shaping which direction they go, leaving one of the summers quieter competitions with a surprisingly relevant finish line. [Read more 🡒]
Clippers Penalties Are Creating A Draft Problem Fans Should Notice
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The Clippers are also carrying another draft complication through Philadelphia, which only adds to the sense that this stretch of league turbulence could reshape where certain picks land. With Los Angeles expected to lose ground in the standings, Bostons swap has a chance to gain real trade value, even if the payoff is still a long way off. Around the league, there is already plenty of movement chatter involving veterans like Bruce Brown and interest from teams such as the Knicks and Lakers, but for the Celtics the more relevant storyline may be the one that is still buried in the calendar. [Read more 🡒]
Former Celtics Guard JD Davison Faces A Tough New NBA Opportunity
JD Davison is getting another shot at sticking in the NBA, this time with the Orlando Magic, who signed the former Celtics guard to an Exhibit 10 contract ahead of training camp. Orlando also added Malaki Branham, and both moves give the team a little more backcourt depth as the roster takes shape for the season ahead. Davison, who was previously with the Houston Rockets, now finds himself in a familiar position for a young guard trying to carve out a place in the league.
The challenge is the same one facing a lot of players on the fringes in late summer: the Magic have limited openings on the roster and only a small number of two-way spots to work with. Davison is competing for either a full roster spot or one of those two-way contracts, which makes his margin for error slim. For a player still looking to turn opportunity into permanence, training camp will do a lot of the deciding. [Read more 🡒]