His Time Is Now: Terry Rozier

We talked a few weeks ago about Terry Rozier and his expanded role on the Boston Celtics. My Boston Celtics. It was a role he earned. We talked about every opportunity he earned and took advantage of. This time it is one opportunity that has fallen into his lap. In game 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Avery Bradley went down with a hamstring injury. While Marcus Smart will likely start, Terry will more than likely get the rest of the minutes that Smart normally had. Terry talked about this opportunity:

“[R.J.Hunter and I] talked about it all last night,” Rozier said. “Me and him got kind of the same mindset, we just always gotta be ready if our number and name is called. We talked about that a lot last night. We’re confident in each other and we’re always supporting one another because we came in together. We know it’s big for us. These next few days are very important.”

Terry has faced adversity at every level of his athletic career and overcome it with flying colors.

“I feel like it’s just been the story of my life,” Rozier told CSNNE.com. “I don’t wish anything (bad) on anybody, my team or the opposing team, but I think this has always been the success story of my life whether it’s regular season, tournament, playoffs, whatever. I just have to step up and play hard.”

When Rozier was at the University of Louisville, teammate Chris Jones was dismissed which forced the Cardinals to play Rozier more at the point guard position.

Rozier said a similar coming-of-age moment happened when he was in high school as well.

But he’s smart enough to know that just because it worked out for him earlier, doesn’t guarantee he’ll like the results from Game 2.

“College, high school, all my life,” Rozier said. “Just have to stay focused. Just because it happened all my life, doesn’t mean I’ll do good now. I just have to take care of the little things before I started thinking about anything big.”

I have no doubt Terry will do it again. Every time he is given an opportunity he excels. He is no longer waiting on an opportunity at this level. His time is now.

*excerpts from stories at ESPN and CSNNE are linked during quotes