{"id":123173,"date":"2025-02-10T16:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T21:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=123173"},"modified":"2025-02-10T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T21:55:10","slug":"boston-celtics-payton-pritchard-rejected-all-star-festivities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/10\/boston-celtics-payton-pritchard-rejected-all-star-festivities\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics Guard Says He Rejected Invitation to All-Star Festivities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2025 NBA All-Star Game is less than a week away, and per usual, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/09\/jayson-tatum-top-10-celtics-scoring\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Boston Celtics<\/a> will have some representatives. Stars <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tatumja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jayson Tatum<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brownja02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaylen Brown<\/a> earned an All-Star selection for the sixth and fourth time, respectively. However, another Celtic reportedly had a chance to partake in the All-Star festivities before declining the invite. In a recent interview, Celtics guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pritcpa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Payton Pritchard<\/a> revealed that he and the NBA had communication about him doing the three-point contest. However, according to Pritchard, he did not believe it was the right time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Payton Pritchard to <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NoaDalzell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@NoaDalzell<\/a> on the 3PT contest: &#8220;They had communicated to me a little &#8230; but I just didn&#8217;t think it was the time this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Full pregame interview: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8vRi6ZqOoM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/8vRi6ZqOoM<\/a><br \/>\n\u26a1\ufe0f <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PrizePicks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Prizepicks<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Gametime?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@gametime<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/54BUsZvdtc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/54BUsZvdtc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Celtics on CLNS (@CelticsCLNS) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CelticsCLNS\/status\/1889002558011724252?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Pritchard has always been a great three-point shooter since joining the league in 2020. However, he has taken an extra step this season. Through 52 games, the 27-year-old is shooting 42.2% from beyond the arc (team-high) on 7.6 attempts. Both of these numbers are career highs for Pritchard. Additionally, he ranks 17th in 3FG% and eighth in 3FG made in the NBA.<\/p>\n<h2>Boston Celtics&#8217; Payton Pritchard Says He Rejected Invitation to All-Star Festivities<\/h2>\n<h3>Payton Pritchard: The Award Winner?<\/h3>\n<p>Though he will not participate in the event, Pritchard is getting his recognition around the league regardless. In addition to the invite, the Celtics guard is also in a good spot to take home an award at the end of the season. Currently, Pritchard (-170) is the betting favorite to win the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bovada.lv\/sports\/basketball\/nba-awards-league-leaders\/futures-odd\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sixth Man of the Year award<\/a>, according to Bovada. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/huntede01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-10_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">De&#8217;Andre Hunter<\/a> (+280) is the only one within reach of Pritchard. However, following his trade to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/10\/cavaliers-roster-buyout-options-center\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>, his case may not be as strong.<\/p>\n<p>In December, Pritchard gave <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/13\/boston-celtics-payton-pritchard-sixth-man-year-award\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a brutally honest comment<\/a> about the award. While admitting winning the award would &#8220;be an honor,&#8221; he also acknowledged that he does not give it much thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not something I really think about. If I\u2019m fortunate to win, I guess [it\u2019s] a testament to the hard work I put in. It just means that I\u2019ve helped this team, coming off the bench and doing my job at a high level. It\u2019s not something I\u2019m like, if I don\u2019t win or win, it\u2019s not make or break it for me. I\u2019m gonna continue what I\u2019m doing. But yeah, it\u2019d be an honor,\u201d Pritchard said.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word On Payton Pritchard and the Boston Celtics<\/h3>\n<p>Pritchard is in the midst of a career year, which has been important to Boston&#8217;s success. This season, the reigning champions are 37-16 and own the No. 2 seed in the East. They look primed for another deep playoff run and remain legitimate title contenders. There is a lot of basketball remaining. However, as it stands, there are just a handful of teams who pose as serious threats to the Celtics in the playoffs. Hopefully for the team, they can make a push following the All-Star break and potentially grab the No. 1 seed from the Cavaliers. Regardless, the Celtics are an elite team and will be a scary opponent for anybody in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2025 NBA All-Star Game is less than a week away, and per usual, the Boston Celtics will have some representatives. Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown earned an All-Star selection for the sixth and fourth time, respectively. However, another Celtic reportedly had a chance to partake in the All-Star festivities before declining the invite. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":99407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,2,62,3],"tags":[2614],"class_list":["post-123173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","tag-payton-pritchard"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123178,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123173\/revisions\/123178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}