The Celtics advanced in the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament.
Their league-designed special court did not.
The Bostonians’ quarterfinal game in the event will be next Monday in Indianapolis, and a win there would send them to Las Vegas for the semifinals.
The splashy floor — enjoyed by some, reviled by others — was used twice at TD Garden, and when all the machinations had unfolded and it was clear the Celts would be hitting the road in the IST, the directive came quickly: “Send it back.”
The more we scratched the paint off the story, the more interesting it became.
While the Celtic organization is in favor of the NBA In-Season Tournament and what it can do for the league, even understanding that new courts to differentiate these games would be part of the package, it took exception to the signature aspect of its regular floor being left out — as reported here when the new court was introduced at TD Garden.
Celtics’ lead owner Wyc Grousbeck confirmed our story again this week.
“We definitely requested that our center strip be parquet,” he told Heavy Sports, “and they requested that we look like the other courts with a solid color.
“People have generally said they think ours is one of the better looking (IST) courts. I think ours looks fine. But we miss the parquet, and we would like to have it.”
Celtics’ NBA In-Season Tournament Floor: It’s a Rental
You want to know how much the Celtics love tradition? You know the bolts in the regular court? They’re just for show. The old Garden’s floor was stitched together with bolts — 988 of them — and drilling could be heard from the upstairs press room as they were removed after games in the old barn when the Bruins were next on the stage.
In a nod to the past as they put new flooring in the new building, bolts were placed on the floorboards and covered with the glossy finish to make the surface uniform.
According to both team and league sources, the Celts have already started lobbying to incorporate some form of parquet on the floor for next year’s In-Season Tournament. It almost certainly won’t be a true parquet style based on a checkerboard of wood grain squares lined up in opposite directions. Perhaps the best the club can hope for is some parquet highlighting in the paint job.
In any case, the odds are extremely strong the paint job on the Celtic court will be erased in the next few months, as this one won’t be hanging around. Forbes places the cost of an In-Season Tournament floor at between $75,000 and $150,000, but that’s not nearly the case with the Celtics’ court — and presumably that of some others.
That’s because the C’s are renting this green and beige-striped surface, the lease covering the months of November and December.
That’s right, renting.
The league office will ultimately foot the bill for this and the other floors. (That’s one receipt you want to be sure to save for reimbursement.)
NBA Floors Are Refinished Each Year
Because of the whole rental aspect, this isn’t the first rodeo for the NBA In-Season Tournament court you’ve been seeing at TD Garden. You may have watched games on it before, though you wouldn’t have recognized it.
This is its second job, the first coming last spring when it was created for the NCAA and got dribbled on at a March Madness tourney site.
While NBA courts usually don’t lead a nomadic existence, they are a little “new” each year. The Celtics refinish their floor after every season (it’s a league requirement). Sometimes it can just entail stripping the top layer and re-coating.
On other occasions, there is sanding and re-painting to place a new “permanent” logo of a sponsor over the baseline or the in-play area — as opposed to the computer-generated ads that appear on the court on television and change periodically during a game.
The work is also done to ensure a safe surface after a season’s wear and tear. There was some question in this regard with the IST floors when Jaylen Brown slipped during the game in Toronto and suffered a mild groin strain, complaining afterward that the court had been slick.
Teams immediately began checking their courts, but no inadequacies were detected.
“It’s not uncommon for players to slip,” a league source told Heavy Sports. “Usually it’s a wet spot from sweat or their sneaker’s bottom doesn’t grip right in some position. When it’s a new court or a refinished court at the start of the season, the complaint we most often get is that it’s too sticky. The IST courts probably just look slippery because the paint job is shiny, so any slipping can get blamed on that.”
So Far, So Good on NBA In-Season Tournament
The NBA will look into that and all aspects of its creation, particularly the part about point differential being such a prominent piece of the tiebreaker. But so far things are working.
While the league expects interest in the event to increase as we enter the elimination game phase of the NBA In-Season Tournament, there was evidence at the Garden Tuesday that introduction of the affair is already achieving its goal. There was buzz during the Celtics’ blowout win over Chicago as fans realized their team had to win by 23 points to have a chance to play on.
And there was a festive atmosphere among those in the Garden’s Putnam Club afterward, as members gathered around the big screens to loudly greet Brooklyn’s win over Toronto (but not by too much) to assure the Celts’ advancement.
One team exec said it sounded like an NCAA crowd. Several feet away from that club through the tunnel, the court being pulled up by the Garden crew had no comment on that comparison.
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Hitting the Floor With the Celtics in the NBA In-Season Tournament