Today in Boston Celtics history, Jerryd Bayless was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1988. He played his NCAA basketball for the Arizona Wildcats for a single season before entering the 2008 NBA Draft, where the Indiana Pacers selected him with the 11th overall pick.
The Phoenix native never suited up for the Pacers, dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers soon after the draft was over. He also played for the (then) New Orleans Hornets (now, Pelicans), Toronto Raptors, and Memphis Grizzlies before the latter ball club sent Bayless to Boston in a trade that netted the Celtics 3-and-D wing Courtney Lee. Bayless played just one season for the Celtics, suiting up for a total of 41 games and starting 14 of them.
He averaged 10.1 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 3.1
assists while with the Celtics, leaving in free agency next summer to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Birthdays
It is also the birthday of Sihugo Green, born in New York City in 1933. An alum of Duquesne, Green was the No. 1 overall pick of the 1956 NBA Draft, taken by the (then) Rochester Royals (now, Sacramento Kings). The New Yorker played for the Royals after their move to Cincinnati, the St. Louis Hawks before they relocated to Atlanta, and the defunct Chicago Packers, Zephyrs, and the also-defunct Baltimore Bullets before joining the Celtics via trade in 1965. The last stop of his career, Green averaged 3.2 points and 1.1 rebounds per game as a Celtic, retiring afterward.
Finally, it is also the birthday of Quinn Buckner, born today in 1954 in Phoenix, Illinois. Buckner played college ball with the Indiana Hoosiers, where he won an NCAA championship, and was drafted seventh overall in the 1976 NBA Draft by the Bucks. He was dealt to the Celtics in 1982, and won a title in his second of three seasons with Boston. The Indiana alum averaged 4.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 2.8 assists, traded to the Indiana Pacers in 1983.
This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Today in Boston Celtics history: Jerryd Bayless, Si Green, Quinn Buckner born
