Boston Celtics: Kemba Walker’s leadership will be on full display at Disney

Kemba Walker’s undervalued leadership skills will be fully displayed for the Boston Celtics in Orlando for the NBA restart.

As the Boston Celtics prepare to begin their journey inside the NBA’s bubble site at Walt Disney World in Orlando, All-Star guard Kemba Walker has the opportunity to showcase his anticipated leadership abilities that could become an important component toward their postseason success.

Last season, the Celtics had an insanely talented roster with high hopes of bringing another championship to Boston. However, they came nowhere near season expectations as they were embarrassedly eliminated by the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, losing the series in just five games.

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Former Celtics’ point guard Kyrie Irving, who is now a member of the Brooklyn Nets, took large parts of the blame throughout the 2018-19 season with Boston due to his questioning style of leadership that ultimately led to a lack of togetherness within the team.

With Irving’s exit in free agency before the start of the 2019-20 season, the opportunity blossomed for Kemba Walker to take his place as the point guard for the Boston Celtics. After spending eight seasons with the Charlotte Hornets with limited success, Walker opted to join an organization with a winning culture and signed a four-year, $140.7 million max contract to reside in Boston. It was the beginning of a new era for the Celtics’ organization.

Upon his arrival, continuous questions lingered about his leadership capabilities and how it would transform the atmosphere in the Celtics’ locker room while distinguishing from last season’s woes. I think most people would agree that Kyrie Irving is more talented than Kemba Walker, but the main question was if whether or not he’d be the better fit in Boston.

Kemba Walker has been known as a respected leader by former teammates throughout his time at UConn and with Charlotte, so Celtics’ general manager Danny Ainge and head coach Brad Stevens may have been expecting Walker to take on the responsibility of becoming an effective leader within the team. It was clear that Walker came to Boston to win, and if his leadership could help make that happen, then he’s the type of guy that would do whatever it takes to execute and deliver.

During his introductory press conference as a Celtic last July, Kemba Walker stated, “Everybody’s different. You talk to guys in different ways. But yeah, I just let things flow. I feel like if I’m doing something, if I’m working hard, I feel like that’s how guys have to be. I try to lead by example for the most part. That’s the kind of guy I am. Never really gonna scream at anybody or anything like that. But yeah, I think chemistry is important. I think the team has to be together. That’s one thing that throughout my career I’ve tried to do.” Walker continued, “I’m more of a lead-by-example type of guy.”

Kemba Walker understands the importance of how chemistry and togetherness factor into the recipe of building a winning team, and he utilizes his leadership skills to help form or improve those interpersonal relationships between the team. He strives to allow his work ethic, mentality, and communication to become contagious throughout his teammates.

Now that the Boston Celtics will be stuck together in Orlando for over three straight months, Kemba will have an excellent opportunity to utilize his leadership to spark a greater bond of togetherness that could help translate to their success on the court.

It’s important to note that during the team’s stay at Disney, the players will mostly be together throughout the entire time. Outside of games, practices, and team meetings, players will be eating together (while socially distanced of course), gaming together, going to events or activities with each other, and their hotel rooms are even right next to each other.

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Instead of players only seeing their teammates at organizational facilities and occasional social activities, they will be surrounded by each other almost every hour of every day. As a result, team chemistry could serve as an essential piece of success more than ever, and Kemba Walker’s style of leadership could certainly help the Celtics in that department.

As a veteran presence and lead-by-example figure both on and off the court, Kemba can prove just how powerful of a leader he can be in his first season with Boston. While his friendly personality will help the team’s togetherness away from basketball activities throughout their time at Disney, his leadership on the court might be the most valuable. His attitude, competitiveness, and desire to win should carry over a positive influence to the rest of the team.

Kemba Walker is the type of guy that will tell his teammates to keep shooting even if they’re having an off night or vocally admitting to committing a mistake every time he makes a bad decision. In addition to utilizing his actions to lead by example, Walker has the capabilities of becoming an excellent vocal leader, especially on the court.

It seems like his valued leadership goes unnoticed for the most part, but we might be able to view a better glimpse of it once the NBA season resumes without fans and less interfering noise. Either way, Kemba Walker has identified himself as a veteran, All-Star talent with exemplary leadership traits that also make him a terrific teammate.

The Celtics have intentions of bringing the Larry O’Brien trophy back to Boston and unlike last season, it seems they now have the respectable and appropriate leader that they’ve craved. Kemba Walker has been a productive asset to the Celtics this season, averaging 21.2 points, 4.9 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game while shooting 37.7 percent from 3-point range, but his leadership abilities have seemed to serve as one of the brighter spots within the team.

It’s no coincidence that multiple Celtics such as Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Daniel Theis have all deeply improved this season while playing alongside Kemba. He has contributed to the improvements of his teammates, both mentally and physically, on and off the court with his leadership serving as a key factor.

Kemba Walker and his undervalued leadership abilities will now be on full display for the Boston Celtics throughout their lengthy expedition toward glory at Walt Disney World in Orlando.