Today in Boston Celtics history: Sharman deal; Conley draft; Wagner, Morrison born; '64 title
Today in Boston Celtics history, Bill Sharman was traded to the Celtics in 1951 from the then Fort Wayne Pistons.
Today in Boston Celtics history, Bill Sharman was traded to the Celtics in 1951 from the then Fort Wayne Pistons (now the Detroit Pistons ), who had acquired Sharman earlier that year in a dispersal draft from the now-defunct Washington Capitals. A native of Abilene, Texas, Sharman played his college basketball at the University of Southern California before being selected by the Capitals in the 1950 NBA Draft as the 17th overall pick. During his ten-season tenure with Boston, Sharman won four championships and was selected for eight All-Star games, earning All-Star MVP honors in 1955, as well as being named to seven All-NBA teams.
He retired as a player in 1961 to go into coaching and became the first person in North American sports history to win titles as a player, coach, and executive. Transactions It was on this day that the 1952 NBA Draft was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the Celtics taking Gene Conley with the 90th overall pick out of Washington State (there were many more rounds to the draft in that era). Conley played four seasons with Boston in two stints, the middle broken up with five seasons playing for the Milwaukee Braves baseball team, with whom he won an MLB national championship in 1957.
He won three NBA championships with the Celtics in the second stint, between 1959 and 1961. Speaking of Conley, on this day, the 1961 NBA Expansion draft was held to populate the roster of the newly-created Chicago Packers. They took the place of the defunct Chicago Stags, and would eventually become the Washington Wizards after several moves and rebrandings.
Conley was selected from Boston’s roster as an unprotected player but never played for the Packers, instead electing to play baseball for the Boston Red Sox. Birthdays It also happens to be the birthday of Celtics short-timer Moritz Wagner, born this day in 1997 in Berlin, Germany. An alum of Michigan, Wagner was picked up by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2018 NBA Draft.