Robert Williams III said he still keeps tabs on his former Boston Celtics teammates, even as he tries to help the Portland Trail Blazers navigate the 2026 NBA Play-In Tournament in Portland. Asked directly if he still follows them, Williams did not hesitate: “Yeah, 100 percent!”
He did not stop there. “Those are my dogs. JT [Jayson Tatum], JB [Jaylen Brown], Payton [Pritchard]—all of them for sure!” he said, speaking about the group he came up with during the formative years of his career in Boston. The Trail Blazers were staring down the Play-In gauntlet, and Williams made clear he still has one eye on the team that shaped him and another on the one he is trying to carry now.
That history matters because Boston did not merely survive the 2025-26 regular season. The Celtics finished 56-26 and secured second place in the Eastern Conference standings, a result Williams said he was not surprised by. “They’ve kinda got a well-oiled machine regardless of who’s going out and who’s going down. So they’re going to play hard regardless,” he said, a nod to a roster that kept winning even with Jayson Tatum sidelined for a significant stretch.
The contrast with Portland is plain. Boston spent the season showing the kind of internal consistency every contender wants. Portland entered the Play-In atmosphere with a different feel, one Williams said he knows well. “I’ve been through a lot with this team. I’m trying to get to the Playoffs,” he said. He also put a number of edge on the matchup ahead, warning, “We can’t take Phoenix lightly at all,” while adding, “It’s a great team over there, but I’ll go with us against anybody.”
For Williams, the Celtics are not just a memory. They are a standard he says can travel with him. “Yeah, you know you kinda gotta carry that to this team,” he said, describing the kind of habits he wants to bring to Portland. That carries extra weight for a player whose career has featured elite defensive dominance interrupted by frustrating stints on the sidelines. He knows how rare a run to the postseason can be, which is why he said, “It’s hard to get back to the Playoffs so I’m glad we got the chance.”
Portland now has a shot to turn that edge into something concrete. Williams has already made his view clear: the Blazers may be fighting through the Play-In, but he believes they belong in the conversation with anyone left standing.
