BOSTON -- Every home game, the Celtics hand out a "Hero Among Us" award to someone had a great impact on the local community.
A familiar face will receive the award on Wednesday night when the Celtics face the Miami Heat. That person is former Celtic Kelly Olynyk.
“I love this community and just everything the Celtics did,” Olynyk said Wednesday afternoon, via Celtics.com. “It was just fun, you know; fun to get out there with the kids, especially. This community does a lot for this team. When I first got here, [the Celtics] weren’t very good at all, but [the community] supports you. No matter what you do, no matter what your record is, they’re going to be behind you, and I wanted to be behind them the same way that they were behind us.”
Olynyk spent four seasons with the Celtics before joining the Heat as a free agent this past offseason.
“Any time there was something there, I was willing to do it,” said Olynyk. “That was just something that I felt that I could do to give back to the community and help this community. They support you so much; to be able to give back, all you do is give back time, really. And you can change somebody’s life in that way. You have the power to do that, and that’s something you should use.”