Paul Pierce started laughing the moment Avery Bradley walked into the locker room. The Boston Celtics were in Charlotte in February 2011, and Bradley had just been recalled from the NBA Development League for emergency depth. The rookie's hair had grown out while on assignment, and Pierce howled at the sight before asking Bradley, "Are there no barbershops in Maine?"
The laughing stopped a couple of days later. Bradley, his confidence rebuilt after a nine-game stint with the team's minor league affiliate, was having an eyebrow-raising practice. The Celtics were in 5-on-5 half-court drills late in the session when Bradley attacked the basket and threw down a dunk over center Kendrick Perkins.
Coach Doc Rivers blew his whistle and ended the practice on the spot. A walk-off dunk.The veterans just stared at Bradley, wondering what had gotten into him.
Sitting inside the locker room at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine, earlier this week as the Celtics prepared for an exhibition game in conjunction with the Red Claws, Bradley shook his head while reflecting back to the series of events that helped jump-start his NBA career.
"I was a completely different person when I came back from Maine," Bradley said. "I remember I came back, and I hadn't got a haircut, and they called me a 'man on a mission.' That first practice, when I dunked on Perk and Doc ended it, from that day on, I felt like I belonged in this league."
The 23-year-old Bradley is entering his fifth season with the Celtics. He signed his first big-money extension this past summer, and he's the second-longest tenured player on the team behind only Rajon Rondo. That assignment to Maine feels like a lifetime ago, as does a short stint playing overseas in Israel soon after while the NBA navigated a lockout. But both trips to the basketball hinterlands were instrumental in shaping Bradley as a person and as a player.