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Five quick thoughts from five Celtics

Wyc Grousbeck (far left) and Danny Ainge (far right) held a news conference with Perry Jones III, David Lee, Amir Johnson, Jae Crowder, and Jonas Jerebko on Monday.Winslow Townson for The Boston Globe

WALTHAM — The Celtics on Monday held a news conference for their offseason acquisitions: David Lee, Amir Johnson, and Perry Jones III as well as two free agents who re-signed, Jae Crowder and Jonas Jerebko. There’s more than 5,000 words to sort through, but here are some of their interesting comments, from jersey-picking to Garden stompings to midnight calls at the start of free agency.

David Lee on facing the Celtics’ ‘Big Three’ of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen when he played for the Knicks:

“You remember the infamous game — infamous for us, great for you guys — when you guys had just gotten Garnett, Ray Allen, everybody. We came in and I think a couple of our guys gave you some bulletin board material before the game, like, ‘Oh, they’re not that good’ or something. It was a national TV game. I was the sixth man. I think by the time I entered the game we were already down by 30. I just remember, by the time I got in, I tried to go up and dunk one on the break, and Garnett put the thing like [in the] third row. I was just like, ‘This is not a good night for any of us.’ It was a bad night for us. And I just remember the Garden being deafening. You look up and all of a sudden you’re like, ‘How did we get down 40 points?’ But it’s a great place to play.”

Video: David Lee on talking to Brian Scalabrine about Boston sports fans

Amir Johnson on picking jersey No. 90:

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“Every number 1-34 is basically retired. My first initial number, I picked No. 5, but I know there was going to kind of be some controversy with that because Kevin Garnett won a championship. So I knew that was pretty much out the water. My number [15], of course, was retired. And I recently posted a picture on my social network, I don’t know if you guys checked it out, it was a team back in the ’90s, like ’97, ’96, I played for my first organized basketball team, which was the Burbank Celtics. It was a Celtics team. So I just kind of just put that together. The ’90s were good. I was born in ’87 but the ’90s were good.”

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Jae Crowder on spraining his knee in Game 4 playoff loss to the Cavaliers:

“I did some rehab. I still do. I still take precautionary rehab-testing stuff. But I feel 100 percent. I could play tomorrow if I wanted. I still do little stuff just to make sure that it doesn’t come back later on and linger or anything like that. Right now I feel 100 percent.

“It was scary because of the timing, and me being in my contract year. Going into this summer, I didn’t want anything to be torn. So right after that game, I remember going to get the MRI and everything was great. That was great news that day. I knew I was good.”

Perry Jones III on what he learned from playing with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City:

“Work hard every day. Pay attention to detail. Those guys helped me to work hard every day, before and after practice. I learned a lot from superstars. You learn a lot.”

Jonas Jerebko on his first experience with free agency, with teams calling him right at midnight on July 1:

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“There’s four, five, six coaches that called from other teams. It was fun staying up at 12 o’clock and getting six, seven phone calls at 12 o’clock.

(Did coaches beep in during calls?)

“Yeah. Left a message, ‘Call me back.’ It was funny.”


Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach