Boston Celtics

Jae Crowder is the motivational speaker Boston needs

Published Nov. 9, 2015 12:11 p.m. ET

foxsports

Jae Crowder's box score numbers barely factored into Boston's decision to give him a five-year contract last summer. Crowder's impact extends beyond the court and into the locker room. He's a hard worker with unquantifiable intangibles that are especially valuable on a growing team that lacks talent.

Here's how he recently described his motivational techniques to the Boston Herald:

Crowder is averaging 10.0 points per game and leads the entire league in steals. He's a menace on defense and fills in the gaps when Boston has the ball. But his influence elsewhere is already helping the Celtics win games.

(h/t: Red's Army)

A little quasi-negativity can go a long way around the Celts. Crowder told Jared Sullinger he was being disrespected by defenses and the power forward responded with 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting against the Wizards. He spoke similarly to center Kelly Olynyk, who had 19 on 7-of-11 marksmanship in that game. “You have to,” Crowder said of the strategy. “It’s all gas. We call it gas around here. I mean, you’ve just got to gas him up. It brings the best out of players. I know myself it does, and Isaiah, we play with each other and we joke around and try to make it tough on each other. We know how to push each other’s buttons to get us going, so I did the same thing with Sully and he performed well. I think it helped him.