Boston Celtics second year guard Avery Bradley is an absolute beast on defense and drives opposing guards crazy when they play against him.
Bradley took a scorching Stephen Curry and hounded him into a miserable 6-22 shooting performance, right after Curry lit up the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden for 54 points.
Bradley only has one goal when he takes the basketball court.
“I want to shut down everybody, every single night,” he said.
Bradley is such a pest on defensive, that according to The Big Lead, opposing guards have either complained or asked Bradley to ease up on them defensively.
Bradley’s back court mate Courtney Lee posted a tweet on Wednesday, that suggest that 76ers guard Jrue Holiday, jokingly or not, asked Bradley to ease up some.
Celtics life also reported that back in January, Jameer Nelson who is as tough as they come, reportedly asked Bradley to ease off the gas as well.
According to Bradley, Nelson begged him to back off: “I looked at him and he kept telling me throughout the game… ‘don’t pick me up.’ And that’s when I knew that if I brought pressure, he didn’t want nothing to do with it.”
Keep in mind that Nelson is a seasoned veteran and a former NBA All-Star, and he is complaining to a 2nd-year back-up point guard who barely got any playing time in his rookie season. Listen to more quotes from Avery’s interview and watch highlights from the Bradley-Nelson match-up in the video above.
Avery went on to tell the media that “It got to a point where he didn’t want to bring the ball up… That’s when I knew I was having an effect.” And apparently this isn’t the first time Bradley has frustrated his opponents. “I can tell (when they get frustrated). Sometimes they talk to me… They’ll say you can get back a little bit, you don’t have to pick me up all the time, and when they start talking to me like that, that’s when I know I’ve got them… Everybody says it to me – everybody. I just laugh. I might just look at them, I’m going to keep coming all of the time.”
I have never heard of such a thing in all my life, but if this true, Avery Bradley is well on his way to several All NBA Defensive teams.