Gerald Wallace calls out teammates

With the NBA season beginning a little over a week away, the expectations have been fairly low for the rebuilding Boston Celtics.  Having suffered losses in 6 of their 7 preseason games, veteran F Gerald Wallace had seen enough and voiced his opinions after the team's latest defeat last evening.

“We’re not playing with effort,” Wallace said. “Guys are out there being selfish. The opponent is giving it their all, regardless of how the night is going.....[Sunday], we ran into another team that just wanted the game more than we did, and they came out and played like it. We had some good spurts, but when it came down to it, they were determined to win the game, and we weren’t.”

“Listen, I mean, veteran, rookie, whatever you want to call it, I was always taught, you can’t teach effort,” said Wallace, “You can’t teach somebody how to give effort. That’s easy. They’ve got that or they don’t. The main thing about it is, either you want to win or you don’t want to win. Effort isn’t something you can learn or teach or give somebody or encourage somebody.  When we step out on the basketball court, we get paid to do this. We’re professionals. So our main thing is, you should want to go out every night and win. It shouldn’t be a question of the effort. You’re going to miss shots, you’re going to turn the ball over, things aren’t going to go your way, but it shouldn’t be because you’re not playing hard or you’re not giving your all.”