Jared Sullinger’s dad cussed him out, inspired him to play better

Boston Celtics center Jared Sullinger was named Eastern Conference player of the week after a tumultuous January. The credit might be because of his father, who gave Sullinger a piece of his mind.

From Jessica Camerato of Basketball Insiders:

"“He came up and cussed me out,” Jared Sullinger told Basketball Insiders 0f his father. “I was thinking he had to tell me something or he wanted me to talk about how everything was going because he seemed worried about me. But instead the conversation just started off – well, his conversation started off – and I was just saying, ‘Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir.’ I was kind of in shock. He was telling me my body language sucks, my attitude sucks, I’m disrespecting the Sullinger name the way I’m acting on and off the court, and when he says off the court he means on the bench.”"

"“He cussed me out multiple times. Then he probably felt like he was good,” said Jared. “My dad always talks about karma. As long as you have karma off the court, you have karma on the court. Me, I would hold on to that game or hold on to that foul call throughout the whole game, throughout the next day, going into the next game, going into the next game, the next game. It happened and it was a snowball effect. Once it started rolling, it just got bigger and bigger and bigger, and I couldn’t stop it. … Finally it hit one of my cars, that’s what I say, it basically hit one of my cars and now one of my cars is damaged. But mentally I’m ok now.”"

Sullinger deserves credit for listening to his father, and taking in stride simply responding with “yes sir.” Hopefully it is a corner turned for Sullinger and it will continue in the future and he won’t slip back.