Celtics Mustn’t Forget Tommy Heinsohn’s Remark On Recently-Retired Center
Former Boston Celtics center Aron Baynes officially retired from basketball after spending nine seasons in the NBA on Wednesday.
Baynes joined the Celtics for the start of the Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown era, signing as a then-free agent with Boston. Called upon to play off the bench behind then-starting center Al Horford, Baynes was as unique as they came. From his 6-foot-10, 260-pound frame, fiery red hair and beard and unorthodox jump shot form, which somehow worked, Baynes became a hard-to-forget name — and face — across a short two-season span spent in a Celtics uniform. Most of all, Baynes will most likely be remembered for an inadvertent off-the-floor run-in with Boston legend Tommy Heinsohn.
“I’ll tell ya, I took a look at Baynes in the shower,” Heinsohn said midway through a preseason matchup against the Charlotte Hornets in 2017. “He looked like all of Australia. He is really put together.”
Heinsohn dug deep into his scorer’s table commentary bag when it came to Baynes, producing an unforgettable, hard-to-miss remark in the midst of a meaningless preseason exhibition. Baynes finished his two-year run with the Celtics averaging 5.8 points and 5.1 rebounds across 132 appearances before joining the Phoenix Suns and (inexplicably) becoming a legitimate 3-point snipper alongside Devin Booker — shooting a career-best 35.1% from three on a career-high four attempts across 42 games. He dropped a career-high 37 points by draining nine threes against the Portland Trail Blazers in 2020 before wrapping up an efficient run in Phoenix. Baynes averaged 11.5 points — also a career-high — that season, swaying the Toronto Raptors to sign him to a two-year, $14.3 million contract the following offseason.
From there, Baynes underwent an abrupt and unforeseen downfall, fading away for the past three seasons before calling it a career less than a week before Opening Night.
The 35-year-old suffered a spinal cord injury after slipping and falling in the bathroom during the fourth quarter of an Olympic pool game with Team Australia in 2021. Baynes struggled to walk, coming in and out of consciousness and remained under medical care for multiple months before being cleared to play again. He never returned to the NBA, finishing off with a 53-game run in a Raptors uniform.