A hodgepodge of everything that the Celtics are doing in London

The Boston Celtics are officially in London, and along with preparing for their Thursday afternoon matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers, they'll also be playing the tourist-bit and having some fun. Here's everything that's gone down so far across the pond:

Yesterday, the team met up at a private terminal in Logan International Airport and got ready for their six-ish hour journey. Long flight's usually suck, but this one seemed like a heck of a time. The plane was dressed to the nines. I mean, first class everything. The seats were stuffed with gifts, the players, coaches, and their families were served multiple meals, and there was a lounge area that was stocked with food and drinks. It reminds me of a children's birthday party: they were provided with a decked-out place to hangout, were given goodies, were able to eat and drink all that they wanted, and had some fun with their friends. It was basically a six hour hangout session for the team.

And a little something for Kyrie Irving: 

The team landed fairly late in London last night, and after an hour long commute, they arrived at the hotel at around 11:00 PM. Then, they took part in a bunch of technical hoopla, which included receiving key cards, being briefed by security, and a team meeting. After that, it was dinner and relaxing. Some of the guys went to bed, others stayed up and watched the Alabama vs. Georgia college football game. The time change surely messed with some of the players' sleep schedules, but they were all prepared for their early afternoon practice today. 

We also found out that Al Horford is a Bill Belichick fan. Smart guy.


It seems like jet lag wasn't an issue for the Celtics, and that their practice today went swimmingly. Granted, they haven't practiced much at all for the past month, and were probably making up for all of the workouts that they've missed. Brad Stevens commented, “We wanted to practice early-afternoon and guys had a good vibe about them. We ended up going pretty hard and cutting a little bit of the back-end of the practice off because I thought we got a lot accomplished.” 

 So the remainder of practice seemed like it was all fun and games. A chance for the players to mess around and impress the international media. Here's a million videos and pictures of what went on at the practice facility today, because there were hundreds of people from the media there. 










There are oodles and oodles of videos from today's practice on the inter web. Frankly, it's overwhelming.

The team also met with the media: 

We got a vintage Kyrie quote: 

And a Dad Stevens joke: 

The Celtics also made a new partnership for their trip to England. Everyone please say hello to BedGear! And luckily for the players, they got a lot more free stuff! 


A few more things! This is from the offseason, when Jaylen Brown visited London around the time that he dominated the NBA Africa game, but it's relevant and he answers some questions about this week's game. 

The players tried on their best English accents. How about Terry Rozier's go at it? Fluent English! The guy is a stud.



Some very encouraging news, but not too much of a surprise: Al Horford will play in Thursday's game. He missed the last contest against the Brooklyn Nets with a mysterious knee injury, but he's good to go and ready to take on Joel Embiid.
Okay, let's wrap this thing up. I'll attempt to update this post as the week rolls on. I, myself, am still trying to figure out an excuse to get out of work early to catch the entire game. 'My girlfriend fell off a cliff and died on impact,' can only be used so many times.


LAST THING: we may be seeing a rookie rivalry this week...

Last, last thing: Cheapest tickets for the game are a cool $400. Nothing to sneeze at.

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Photo: NBA 
Most info here is courtesy of Marc D'Amico @marc_damico
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