Today in Boston Celtics history, Alton Lister was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1958. Standing at an impressive seven feet, Lister began his collegiate basketball career playing below the NCAA level with San Jacinto Junior College, where he teamed up with future NBA shooting guard Oliver Mack. Following his tenure suiting up for San Jacinto, Lister transferred to Arizona State University to play for the Sun Devils, joining fellow future NBA player and (later) head coach Byron Scott (who also happened to be a shooting guard). By his senior season, Lister put up 15.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.
This would earn Lister honorable mentions with All-America honors by the Associated Press and Street & Smith's, All-PAC-10 honors, and the Sun Devil's
Most Improved Player award. It also got him selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 21st overall pick of the 1981 NBA draft, for whom he would play five seasons.
Lister also played for the (then) Seattle SuperSonics (now, Oklahoma City Thunder), Golden State Warriors, and another stint with the Bucks before coming to Boston in a trade with Todd Day in exchange for Sherman Douglas in 1995.
The Dallas native played a total of 110 games for the Celtics across two seasons before leaving the team in 1997 to sign with the Portland Trail Blazers as an unrestricted free agent.
He averaged 2.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per game with the Celtics.
This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Today in Boston Celtics history: Alton Lister born
