C's weren't built in a day

June 2008

C's weren't built in a day

For his first preseason, coach Doc Rivers took the Celtics away for a week of training camp at the University of Vermont. The next two years, he tried to arrange a similar trip but was rebuffed by the people upstairs.



He never even had a chance to lobby for Burlington, Vt., before this season.

There will be no scenic New England training camp, Rivers was told, but how does Rome grab you?

Not so well at first. Taking the Green to the Green Mountains was one thing, but dipping them in marinara sauce -- with a stopover in London on the way home -- was a different story.

``I'd heard all the horror stories from the coaches who'd taken their teams over to Europe,'' Rivers said. ``I talked to those guys, and they told me how hard it was to hold a good camp. And then there was the travel and all the problems that caused . . . getting over it when you came back. I was really concerned.''

After a couple of days in Italy in early October, Rivers quickly realized the Celtics were getting more out of the trip than just basketball. And now, as the club prepares for the NBA Finals, the rewards of that 12-day journey are still being reaped.

When director of basketball operations Danny Ainge traded for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen and then signed James Posey and Eddie House as free agents, it was clear that the Celtics, with Paul Pierce still on board, would have good enough players to get this far.

But would they have a good enough TEAM?

An answer began to take shape when the stars worked out together even before camp officially opened. The bond only became tighter when the Celtics were dropped together in a foreign land. They worked hard on the court, and even the fun was beneficial.

For a group that had little collective experience on which to draw, the memorable times were many. The private tour of the Vatican was a particularly special occasion, and the unsupervised time was cool, as well.

Here are some highlights from where it all began:

Pass the octopus

Several of the Celtics went out for a little sightseeing. Most had a better time at dinner than Glen Davis, who had to eat a full order of octopus as part of his rookie hazing.

Although Pierce said the meal looked ``nasty,'' Allen said it wasn't all that bad.

``Aw, c'mon,'' he said. ``It was at a restaurant. It wasn't like `Fear Factor' where they put out some goat's (testicles) and say, `Eat that.' This was on the menu. How bad could it have been?''

Roaming in Rome

In Rome, the Celtics had a chance to be about as regular as they can get. They could move around with far less attention than they receive in the States. They could get to know each other in situations that weren't so contrived.

During an NBA season, they move from chartered plane to highbrow hotel and then back again. There is adulation waiting outside their door, and even when engaged in something so mundane as getting off their bus at a Four Seasons, they know they are getting the ``hey, there they are'' treatment.