On this day in Boston Celtics history, former Boston big man Rasheed Wallace signed with the team on a multi-season deal his body didn’t let him finish. Wallace, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, played his college ball at the University of North Carolina, from which he was drafted by the (then) Washington Bullets (now, Wizards) with the fourth overall pick of the 1995 NBA draft.
Wallace would make the All-Rookie team with the Bullets, and then play stints with the Portland Trail Blazers, Atlanta Hawks, and Detroit Pistons (with whom he would win a title in 2004) before joining the Celtics, making All-Star teams in four of those seasons.
‘Sheed (as he was often called) played just one season for the Celtics, his numbers hobbled by minor injuries.
This led to Wallace retiring at the end of the season (he would try a brief comeback with the New York Knicks a few seasons later, which went similarly).
Wallace would average 9 points, 4.1 rebounds, and an assist per game as a Celtic.
Finally, it is also the date that wing Togo Palazzi was born in Union City, New Jersey in 1932.
A product of Holy Cross picked up by the Celtics in the 1954 NBA draft, Palazzi played parts of three seasons with Boston before his rights were sold to the (then) Syracuse Nationals (today’s Philadelphia 76ers) in 1956.
He averaged 5.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per game while with the Celtics.
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