On this day: Walter McCarty traded to Suns; JaJuan Johnson, Warren Fenley born
On this day: Walter McCarty traded to Suns; JaJuan Johnson, Warren Fenley born
On this day in Boston Celtics history, the storied franchise traded forward Walter McCarty to the Phoenix Suns for a second-round pick and cash in 2005.
McCarty had been an alumnus of the University of Kentucky men's basketball program under head coach Rick Pitino. McCarty would later be reunited with him on the Celtics after he was picked up by the New York Knicks in the 1996 NBA draft, then traded away to Boston after playing a season with New York. The Evansville native would spend a total of eight seasons with the Celtics before he would be traded to the Suns.
Over that stretch, McCarty averaged 2.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 5.7 points per game during his tenure with the franchise as a player.
It also happens to be the birthday of JaJuan Johnson, ex-Celtics big man and one of the more commonly-cited blemishes on Danny Ainge's drafting record, who was born this day in 1989 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Johnson, a consensus First-Team All-American at Purdue, never panned out in the NBA.
He was drafted by the (then) New Jersey Nets (now, Brooklyn) 27th overall in the 2011 NBA draft, then traded to the Celtics along with a 2014 second-round pick for the rights to MarShon Brooks. His erratic production doomed his career in Boston, where he averaged 3.2 points and 1.6 boards per game in his lone season with the club.
Today is also the anniversary of the birth of Warren Fenley in 1922, one of the original members of the Celtics, playing only for their inaugural season of 1946-47. We know little about him as a pro, aside from that he averaged 2.6 points per game, played forward, and shot .225 from the field for the Celts in the Basketball Association of America (one of the NBA's precursor leagues).
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