**Torrey Craig** returned to Boston early last week, broke into the trainer’s room and found **Jayson Tatum**, yelling at him to make the Celtics star smile. Craig wanted to get back in the Auerbach Center with his 11-year-old son Braylon to start working out again — he doesn’t like to take too much time off after a season — and show support for his injured teammate. Those Celtics, back at work midway through June, also serve as the example Craig wanted to show his son as he begins his basketball journey.
“I wanted to have him seeing it firsthand, the work it takes,” Craig said on _The Garden Report_ this week. “Even on off-days and the weekends, I still take him to the gym and I’ll do a lift, I’ll get on the treadmill, we’ll run in the gym just to try to show him that it’s also the work behind the scenes you have to do to make it to the NBA and to be successful in the NBA, because a lot of kids, they’ll be on YouTube and they just see highlights and then they see games and things of that sort where it looks like it’s easy. All you gotta do is be good and do this and then everything is cool, but they don’t see the behind-the-scenes, the work, the sweat, the part of work that goes into it, the dedication and sacrifice.”
“So when I take him to the gym, I want him to see all of that. I love how he sees Al just getting treatment every day on the table, how he’s seeing JT coming in getting treatment, he sees Jaylen in there in the cold tub. He sees all those things and it’s registering for him.”
### Craig loved Boston
Craig becomes a free agent next month and while he’ll maintain a business approach in selecting his next team, he experienced an atmosphere with the Celtics unlike others he came across in the NBA. A fellow father, **Joe Mazzulla**, whose leadership was evident from afar and partially inspired Craig to sign in Boston, welcomed Braylon along the sideline and even urged him to speak to the team before an April game against Charlotte.
And while all that could potentially land him back in a Celtic uniform, he finished his stint with Boston with a strange feeling — regret.
After signing with the Celtics following a February buyout from Chicago, where he recovered from a nerve injury to his right ankle, he appeared in 17 of Boston’s 28 games. He shot 35.6% from the field and 29% from three, and while he never felt pressure while attempting 2.6 shots per game, mostly threes, he believed his minutes could’ve proven more impactful. Craig declined to blame his health, but instead pointed to tentativeness after changing teams mid-season.
“I expected to win. That’s what we all expected,” Craig said. “That’s what we all wanted and obviously, we fell short, but I wish that I could have made my presence felt a little bit more. I know coming in from Chicago, I was dealing with a nerve injury in my leg and foot. So I was recovering from being out for 2.5, almost 3 months.”
“So then coming here, I still don’t feel like I really got that chance to make my presence felt the way I wanted it to, but as a player, you always wish you could do more and have done more, especially looking back and that’s the feeling that I leave with, especially after coming up short. Everybody’s expectation was to win, was to go deep into the playoffs, was to play in the finals, bring another parade back to Boston and we fell short of that, so, I can now regroup and see what’s next.”
**Payton Pritchard**, **Al Horford** and Craig headlined the veterans leading workouts at Auerbach Center this month with younger players **Baylor Scheierman** and **Miles Norris** preparing for Summer League. **Drew Peterson**, who’s also heading for free agency, will hear soon if he’s joining them in Las Vegas. Tatum entered his sixth week rehabbing since undergoing achilles surgery. Brown began his second since an arthroscope on his right knee.
### Uncertain summer
Offseason uncertainty awaits almost the entire Celtics roster. So Craig, who embraced a vocal role as his playing time diminished, tried to lighten the mood at the facility this month.
“I always try to lighten the mood up around (Tatum), not be too serious, make jokes to see him laugh, see him smile,” Craig said. “But it’s good to see him active on social media, because probably first couple of weeks are probably the worst, and now he’s getting his routine down. He’s always in with his trainer doing his rehab, so I think it’ll get easier as time goes on, but it’s always tough seeing somebody like that go down, especially a person like JT.”
Craig expressed a willingness to fill whatever role teams ask from him. Defense and three-point shooting marked his successful runs between Indiana and Chicago. Boston currently has three open roster spots for impending free agents Craig, Horford and **Luke Kornet** to potentially return, and however many rookies the Celtics draft next week.
### Off the court initiatives
In July, while some teammates attend Summer League, [Craig will return to Great Falls, South Carolina for his fourth Torrey Craig Day. The community event for the small town where he attended college involves a three-on-three tournament, a school supplies giveback and his foundation will give away two scholarship](https://www.torreycraigfoundation.org/)s. He’s maintained strong ties to the area since departing to play overseas in New Zealand and Australia, where he considered pursuing citizenship before taking his own chance at summer league for a contract that’s set up a stable career since.
Now, ahead of his 35-year-old season, Craig sounded intrigued by the chance for redemption.
“Looking back at it, you always wish you could do more and leave more of an imprint and let your presence be felt more, because there’s nothing worse than you finishing the season and wishing, thinking I should have done this, I should have did that,” he said. “You wanna leave it with no regrets and that’s usually how I play. I have no regrets with no team I’ve been on, but obviously the situation was a little bit different coming in and trying to figure out everything on the fly and not much time to learn a lot of stuff and you’re thrown in the fire, so on my end, I wish I (would’ve been) more assertive.”