LAS VEGAS — Jordan Walsh admitted it was a “dumb decision” made partly because he forgot he had picked up a technical foul just moments before. But regardless, he owned up to his ejection from the Celtics’ Summer League loss to the Heat on Monday.
Walsh was kicked out midway through the second quarter for picking up his second technical foul of the game. The first one came at the 3:41 mark of the second quarter when Walsh and the Heat’s Erik Stevenson were called for double techs. Then, seven seconds later, Walsh got into an altercation with the Pelle Larsson after Walsh’s hard foul. So, with two techs, he was thrown out.
But afterwards, Walsh revealed Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla’s reaction to the entire kerfuffle. Mazzulla watched the game from the stands sitting with his family. And, yes, it was an expected Mazzulla response.
“He told me he loved it,” Walsh said. “As soon as I got ejected, I got to the locker room and checked my phone and he was texting me like, ‘I love this out of you.’ So take that for what it is. But Joe was hyped.”
Walsh stressed he didn’t want to get pushed around, which is why he had such a fiery reaction throughout the game. The rising third-year pro was putting together his best game in Las Vegas as he had an early 13 points and three rebounds on 5-for-8 shooting. But his night was cut short.
In an interesting-but-perhaps-unfortunate twist, Walsh’s foul on Larsson was also right in front of top Celtics executives. New owner Bill Chisholm was sitting court-side with guys like Brad Stevens and team president Rich Gotham. So they got an up-close view to the entire altercation.
Walsh ended up chatting with Stevens after the game, who perhaps didn’t have the same reaction as Mazzulla. Walsh at least showed that he’s not going to back down to anybody on the court while showing some emotion. The mileage perhaps varies depending on who the evaluator is, but at least Mazzulla expectedly loved it.
“For one, I wanted to make sure everybody was okay because I kind of like caused that,” Walsh said. “But I was telling (Stevens) like, I apologized to him just because that’s not really me. I’m more of a professional than that, more mature than that. I just wanted to make sure he knew that and this wasn’t going to be a continuous thing.”
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