Everyone is on one page

The first time Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury played together was in 1996 with the T-wolves and Flip Saunders.

KG was 20 years old; Marbury was still a teenager.

Now, 13 years later, what did Garnett tell Marbury about what to expect in Boston?

"He spoke about how much fun it’s been and how much fun I’m going to have and how basketball is fun again and you feel that. You feel it when you come into the locker room. Just everything about the organization – everyone is on one page, there’s no division, everybody is trying to do one thing and that’s win a basketball game to win a championship."

BOS coach Doc Rivers "explained to Marbury that being a Celtic means putting the team first and the individual second, and he believes that Marbury has bought into that team concept."

"This whole Steph thing is not about Steph," Rivers said. "It’s not about Rajon [Rondo]. This whole thing is more of a statement on our team. It really is and whether or not we have the type of team that is about zero [individual identity] and that is all about winning. To me, it’s more a testimony on that."

To get into shape after not playing for more than a year, Marbury trained in Manhattan Beach (just south of LAX) with Aim Sports Medicine.

Marbury, who "lost more than 10 pounds over the course of his training," worked on his core, ran and hiked the Runyan Mountains, and did a number of nontraditional exercises.

"I was lifting 100-pound boulders. I was doing things that I’ve never done before like swinging sledge hammers, using kettlebells. It changed the structure of my body. I lost a lot of weight and I got stronger."