{"id":10621,"date":"2022-01-09T05:06:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T05:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/2022\/01\/09\/kemba-walker-sends-message-after-celtics-game-i-want-to-play\/"},"modified":"2022-01-09T05:06:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T05:06:21","slug":"kemba-walker-sends-message-after-celtics-game-i-want-to-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/kemba-walker-sends-message-after-celtics-game-i-want-to-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Kemba Walker Sends Message After Celtics Game &#8216;I Want to Play&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"ad-disqus\">\n<p>Despite the New York Knicks falling short against the Boston Celtics, Kemba Walker\u2019s performance sent a resounding messages to two parties. One to Boston that he can still contribute despite an injury-filled during his Celtic tenure and one Coach Thibodeau that he deserves more than just emergency minutes  as the League confronts multiple outbreaks. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to play,\u201d Walker said per ESPN. \u201cI don\u2019t know. So it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know I should be playing, so no question. It feels great. But whatever situation I\u2019m in, I\u2019m gonna stay locked in, stay prepared. Whatever the team needs from me, I\u2019ll be there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After being benched three weeks ago Walker took full advantage of his opportunity, scoring a season-high 29 points in the Knicks\u2019 114-107 loss to the Celtics. Coach Tom Thibodeau allowed Walker back into the starting lineup after nine Knicks players became unavailable due to positive tests and Derrick Rose being out with injury.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kcQhUpOEATU\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This game may gain some headlines for Kemba, who last played on Nov. 26 in a loss to the\u00a0Phoenix Suns. His 17 point third quarter led New York to the lead after falling behind big in the first half.\u00a0Since Kemba\u2019s departure from the rotation,\u00a0the Knicks lost eight of the ten games he didn\u2019t play.<\/p>\n<p>After the game, Kemba Walker made it clear that he didn\u2019t come to New York to collect DNP-CDs.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI hate it. I want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kemba Walker on not playing previous 10 games for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Knicks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Knicks<\/a> after scoring 29 points vs. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Celtics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Celtics<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3tGWOnF2dd\">pic.twitter.com\/3tGWOnF2dd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCSCeltics\/status\/1472412535240503302?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Throughout Walker\u2019s benching, Thibodeau fielded questions about Walker. When he made the decision, Thibs revealed just how difficult the decision was to ax Walker\u2019s minutes on the court\u00a0via ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a tough decision to make, but you always have to do what you think is best for the team,\u201d Thibodeau said that day in explaining his decision. \u201cI view Kemba as a starter, and so it\u2019d be tough to play three small guards together. I gave it consideration, and I\u2019ve got great respect for who Kemba is as a person and all he\u2019s accomplished in this league.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I have to do what I think is best for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is not what Walker or the Knicks signed up for; he\u00a0agreed to a two-year, $20 million deal in the offseason.\u00a0Time will tell with reports that the two haven\u2019t spoken much since the benching.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script>\n\t! function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n\t\tif (f.fbq) return;\n\t\tn = f.fbq = function() {\n\t\t\tn.callMethod ?\n\t\t\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments)\n\t\t};\n\t\tif (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\n\t\tn.push = n;\n\t\tn.loaded = !0;\n\t\tn.version = '2.0';\n\t\tn.queue = [];\n\t\tt = b.createElement(e);\n\t\tt.async = !0;\n\t\tt.src = v;\n\t\ts = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n\t\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s)\n\t}(window, document, 'script',\n\t\t'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\tfbq('init', '166515104100547');\n\tfbq('track', 'PageView');\n\t<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite the New York Knicks falling short against the Boston Celtics, Kemba Walker\u2019s performance sent a resounding messages to two parties. One to Boston that he can still contribute despite an injury-filled during his Celtic tenure and one Coach Thibodeau that he deserves more than just emergency minutes as the League confronts multiple outbreaks. \u201cI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[768,291,920,1021,610,921],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10623,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621\/revisions\/10623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}