When Jeff Teague signed with the Boston Celtics for the 2020-21 season, he believed he had joined a championship team. That team had Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, and Kemba Walker, among others.
However, when Teague arrived, Kemba was hurt, so he got a lot of minutes. With Wlaker coming back, Boston gave Jeff a choice to stay and play less minutes, or get traded. At 32, he still wanted to play, so he asked to be sent away.
Teague got traded to the Orlando Magic, who immediately waived him. After clearing the waivers, the former Wake Forest standout had to decide which team he wanted to finish the season with.
"Coach Bud called me immediately like 'Come here, you're gonna play,' which I ain't play that much," said Teague on The Draymond Green Show. "Coach Bud lied to me, but it's all good. And then Ty Lue called me and was like, 'Come to the Clippers, bro, we play everybody. Like we didn't brought Reggie Jackson back to life, like if you want to play, come player here'. Coach Bud called me again like, 'We gonna win a championship.' I'm gonna rock with Bud, man. I know Bud."
Reunited with his former coach
Teague had played for Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer when the latter was still leading the Atlanta Hawks. In fact, during Coach Bud's first season with the A-Town squad in 2014-15, Teague made his only All-Star Game appearance. Budenholzer also led that team to the Conference Finals.
But they parted ways two years later, with Teague getting traded to his hometown Pacers in 2016 and Coach Bud transferring to the Milwaukee Bucks after five seasons in Atlanta. Given their shared history, Teague chose to play for Milwaukee over the L.A. Clippers.
"Go there, good year," added Teague. "You could tell we had something but I didn't know if we had a championship, I'd never been on a championship team. So I don't know what that feels like. I just know we're a good team."
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Bucks went on a run
Milwaukee entered the 2020-21 NBA season coming off a campaign in which they won 60 games and were the top seed in the Eastern Conference. But the Bucks ended up losing to the eventual Eastern Conference champions, the Miami Heat, in the bubble.
They went 46-26 in 2020-21 and were just the third seed in the East. But after stunning the favored Brooklyn Nets with Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving in a seven-game second-round series, the Bucks defeated Trae Young's Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals. Then, they stunned the Phoenix Suns in the 2021 NBA Finals to win their first NBA title since 1971.
Teague retired after winning his first NBA championship. He jokingly said that playing against Darius Garland and De'Aaron Fox that year made him realize he was too old . But after a 14-year career filled with disappointments and injuries, riding off in the sunset and coming off a championship season was the perfect way to end his career.
Related: “He felt like he was about to get fired” - Jeff Teague on how the momentum shifted in the Bucks’ favor during the 2021 playoffs
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