PHILADELPHIA -- Growing up in North Philly, Brad Wanamaker was no different than a lot of basketball-playing kids in the neighborhood who dreamed of someday playing in the NBA in front of family and friends.
But the dream won't play out exactly how he planned it, with Wanamaker and his Boston Celtics teammates in town to take on the Philadelphia 76ers tonight.
That's OK.
Things not going according to plan has been a part of Wanamaker’s basketball odyssey, one in which he has spent nearly a decade playing overseas and in the Gatorade League (It was the Development League when he played) before this, his first season in the NBA.
But that hasn’t deterred the 29-year-old rookie from steadily striving towards his dream: Playing in the NBA, a dream that so many who have had his back along the journey will get to witness first-hand tonight as he returns to Philadelphia for the first time as an NBA player.
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“It’s gonna be a lot of family and friends, a lot of emotions going into that game,” Wanamaker told NBC Sports Boston. “A lot of excitement. It’s a big day for me; not just me, but my family also.”
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And while his opportunities to play have been limited during his time in Boston, there’s a very good shot that he’ll play tonight due to Kyrie Irving (right knee sprain) being out.
This will be the 10th game this season that Irving has missed. Of the previous nine, Wanamaker saw action in all but one of them. And in those eight games he did play, he averaged 6.4 points -- nearly double what he’s averaging for the season.
While he's shown the ability to score when given minutes this season, Wanamaker’s greatest strengths as a player have always been his ability to lead, both with his words and by his actions having won multiple titles overseas as well as MVP awards in the process.
“Brad has had an amazing journey through the G-League and France, Italy, Germany where he was teammates with [current Celtic] Daniel Theis,” said Mike Zarren, Boston’s assistant general manager and team counsel. “He’s tough. He can guard multiple positions. He can shoot, he can handle . . . We’re real happy to have him.”
And he’s happy to be in Boston, even with the knowledge coming in that minutes were going to be few and far between for him.
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Wanamaker never lost hope that someday he would get an opportunity to play in the NBA, even as the calendar kept flipping to another year and he remained overseas.
And the patience he showed in waiting for his opportunity to be in the NBA, remains a major part of who he is now due to the pecking order of talent ahead of him in Boston, which has been the biggest factor in limiting his playing time.
"It’s super, super tough,” Wanamaker acknowledged of staying patient. “I can’t just say, ‘Coach should put me in.’ I just have to go out there and make the most of my minutes. You work so hard to get here, get here for this opportunity and the opportunity is so short. You just have to be ready, next man up.”
And that is where he finds himself now with Irving out and his role likely being to serve as the team’s backup point guard behind Terry Rozier. Tonight, that means he will play out his lifelong dream of playing in the NBA before lots of family and friends.
Being back home as an NBA player also serves as a reminder of just how far Wanamaker has come; him as well as Celtics teammate and Philly native Marcus Morris.
“Coming up in Philly, there’s not a lot of chances that you’re gonna make it out,” Wanamaker said. “Basketball was my escape. I’m going to do anything and everything to keep it that way. I’m not just playing for myself, playing for my family and some of my homies who picked up the game of basketball like me, that didn’t make it. That chip is always gonna be there because I’m playing for more than me; this is bigger than me.”
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