Celtics Forward Kelly Olynyk Follows Father's Word, Steve Nash's Lead to NBA
Waltham, Mass.—Most kids want to be an athlete when they grow up, but it’s hard to find many with the foresight that Boston Celtics center Kelly Olynyk had in his childhood.
When asked by his parents at age seven what he wanted to do as an adult, Olynyk broached the idea of being a professional basketball player.
“We told him he might want to have a secondary plan,” Kelly's father, Ken told Bleacher Report via phone from British Columbia, Canada.
Kelly didn't end up needing that fallback plan after all. Instead, the 23-year-old is now preparing for opening night in his second NBA season against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday evening. A new test awaits the 7-footer this year as he handles the starting center spot for Boston, but a look inside Olynyk's path to the NBA shows he should be ready for the challenge.
Olynyk grew up in a sporty household in western Canada as a basketball junkie and refined his skills growing up to become one the the top young rising stars in the country by his late teens. His strong play led to a scholarship offer from Gonzaga University, but a formidable frontcourt including future Los Angeles Laker Robert Sacre limited Olynyk's playing time. After two up-and-down seasons in Spokane, the big man made the surprising decision to redshirt a season to refine his game further.
A year of hard work and helpful guidance during his redshirt season helped him emerge as an All-American and eventual NBA lottery pick (13th overall) after returning to the floor his junior year. According to Mike Douchant of Collegehoopedia.com, Olynyk was the first player in history to become an All-American after redshirting following two seasons of Division I play.
During Olynyk's unorthodox path to the NBA, one man has helped support and mold Olynyk into the player he is, throughout the highs and lows. Ken Olynyk has been a basketball coach for nearly 40 years, working with players on a variety of levels in Canada from high school, college and national teams. He even spent a year as a visiting coach with the Toronto Raptors.
Currently, the elder Olynyk serves as the director of athletics and recreation at Thompson Rivers University in Canada, a post he has held since 2003.
Kelly was the beneficiary of his father’s impressive resume throughout his younger years. Ken coached him on several teams and helped him develop a unique skill set that would allow him to reach greater heights at the next level.
Olynyk spent much of his teenage years playing point guard on his high school team before a seven-inch growth spurt around his junior season turned him into a frontcourt player. A 7-footer today, Olynyk still credits the development of his strong passing and ball-handling skills to his father.
“I think a lot of that is a testament to my dad,” Olynyk told Bleacher Report. “He always insisted that I play the point guard growing up, because you never know what’s going to happen with those skills. They are always huge.
“There are a lot of people in basketball who start out, maybe grow early and play in the post because they are 5’5’’ in grade four or six. Then they end up being 5’8’’ and all they can do is play post so their basketball career ends the freshman year of high school, you know?”
Olynyk was also influenced, like many of his Canadian basketball peers, by the country's premier NBA star, Steve Nash. Olynyk said about the great point guard:
"I can’t thank him enough or say enough about him and what he’s done...He’s a great person, unbelievable player. And just his work ethic and his dedication to the game is unbelievable. He kind of instilled that in not only me, but a lot of other Canadian players throughout the summers with the national teams.
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Nash wasn’t just an influence for Olynyk on the basketball court, but the big man's long hair may have been modeled after the 40-year-old point guard as well. According to Ken, Kelly started to let his hair grow long at age 12, right around the time Nash's hair grew out. To this day, Olynyk has let only one person cut his hair since the 10th grade.
Olynyk now is one of the more recognizable members of the Celtics, thanks to that hair. Like most rookies though, Olynyk stayed in his own lane for much of his first season in the NBA. There was little emotion shown either on the court or in the locker room. That’s not a surprise, according to his father, since it’s a trait that has helped him achieve success over the years:
"[Kelly’s] been very consistent in terms of how he sees the game, and with his personality on the court. He’s never been a hot head. One of the things people don’t realize about him is that he’s extremely competitive. He’s not someone who shows competitiveness outwardly...He’s reserved because we’ve always talked about that—being able to check your emotions all the time. It doesn’t mean he’s not competitive. He obviously has a lot of emotion in terms of the game and how he views the game with his passion. That’s a credit to him.
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Off the court, however, Kelly does show off a versatile and comedic side. Celtics reserve point guard Phil Pressey, one of Olynyk’s closer friends on the team, talked to Bleacher Report about that kind of engaging personality.
“He’s very bright. Some of the things that I’m not too caught up on [in life], he knows all about. Whether it’s sports to hockey to baseball to news, or what’s going on in the NBA. He knows a lot of different things. A lot of people don’t know that. That kid is pretty smart,” Pressey explained.
Card tricks, impressions and storytelling are all Olynyk trademarks, that is, if you are lucky enough to earn the trust of the big man.
“He does have a fantastic sense of humor,” Ken Olynyk added. “He always has been from the time he was a little kid, all the way up. Until he knows people, or until he’s comfortable in situations, you don’t see that side of him.”
While fans may start to see more of Olynyk’s personality as he feels more at home during year two in Boston, his even-keeled attitude will serve him well as he handles his new duties in the starting lineup with the Celtics.
After an up-and-down rookie season in which Olynyk averaged 8.7 points and 5.2 rebounds over 70 games, the 23-year-old worked out in Boston for the majority of the offseason, readying himself for his increased responsibility. His father noted that it’s a challenge Kelly has embraced.
“I think [playing center] is nothing he shies away from,” said the senior Olynyk. “We often have talked about what the most important thing is, and the most important thing is you’re on the floor. I think he alludes to that. Don’t be categorized by your position.
“You’re on the floor, and let’s make things happen since you are on the floor. Is center the position for him? I don’t know. Did we ever think that would be the case? No. Now he is [a center] though, and he’s accepted it.”
Brad Stevens has been impressed with the work Olynyk has put in over the summer to prepare for his new role.
"His weight room work has really helped, and not your traditional weight room work. It's not like he spent all summer on the bench press or something like that where he's just building up muscle. It's more about working on his base and being able to play in a stance for longer periods of time," Stevens said.
A challenging gauntlet of centers will put Olynyk’s improvements to the test as he matches up against the likes of Brook Lopez, Dwight Howard, Tyson Chandler and Roy Hibbert over his first five games.
"It's not easy," Olynyk told CSNNE.com when asked about playing center against some of the NBA's best big men. "You have to work your butt off. The biggest thing is trying to keep them off the glass, or deep in the paint, try to make it difficult on them. You have to make them guard you at the other end."
With continued hard work and guidance from his mentor across the Canadian border, Olynyk will aim to grow his game yet again and help the Celtics become a surprise team in the Eastern Conference this season.
“We do talk about what I think he may be able to do,” the long-time coach said of sharing advice with his son. “I have a view on what makes a really good franchise and how you can contribute to that, and he wants to win. He wants there to be success. I think that is key. I think that they are a better team than they were last year. I think that’s his goal for the team. They want to be in the playoffs.”
The quest begins Wednesday night.
Brian Robb covers the Boston Celtics for Bleacher Report.
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