Celtics Give Garrity a Look

Celtics Give Garrity a Look

June 20, 1998

Pat Garrity's recent itinerary reads like a Bruce Springsteen concert tour.

Yesterday the sharpshooting Notre Dame forward was at Brandeis University in Waltham to work out for the Celtics - after having auditioned in Toronto, Sacramento, Milwaukee, Houston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Charlotte, and Orlando.

"I've got one more to go. I'm flying to Atlanta today," said Garrity, who also went to the predraft camp in Chicago. Yesterday he went through a one-hour workout along with Ansu Sesay of the University of Mississippi and Rashard Lewis of Alief-Elsik High School in Alief, Texas. The players participated in an array of drills as coach Rick Pitino, general manager Chris Wallace, and chief scout Leo Papile looked on. Garrity was still sweating from the workout after he emerged from the showers.

"It's been a lot of fun traveling to different cities and meeting different organizations to work for," he said. Wallace said all three players have some upside. "Ansu Sesay is very athletic, competitive, and productive in one of the top conferences in the country, the SEC," he said. "Pat Garrity is a very finished product. He can make shots. He is very fundamentally sound and he knows what it is like to be productive every night because he was about all they had to go to.

"Rashard Lewis is making a tour to all these places because of upside. People are tantalized by what he could be in the near future. He is athletic and he has some offensive skills."

They won't get seconds

The Celtics will not have a second-round pick in this year's NBA draft.

Although it has not been announced, the Knicks will take the pick, as is their right as part of the Chris Mills deal last October. Mills was traded along with two seconds for Walter McCarty, Scott Brooks, Dontae Jones, and John Thomas.
This year's pick is No. 38 overall.

Intriguing possibilities

In its mock draft, Sports Illustrated has the Celtics taking UNLV's Keon Clark, a 6-foot-10-inch forward-center, with the 10th pick in the first round. The team worked out Clark and four others yesterday. While many scouts are concerned that Clark quit the Runnin' Rebels last season, they cannot deny his considerable talent. The Celtics like Clark but they may have more options when it comes to their selection in Wednesday's draft.

Every year a team throws off the order of the draft, and that is already happening. Arizona point guard Mike Bibby, who many predicted would be the top pick, apparently could fall as low as seventh or eighth. Instead, the Clippers are interested in taking Pacific center Michael Olowokandi with the first pick. Vancouver may be interested in dealing its way out of the No. 2 slot, and Raef LaFrentz, whom Pitino praised last season, is tumbling out of the top five, too.

"This is one of the most intriguing drafts that I've seen in a while," Pitino said. But it's also a starless draft. So might the Celtics still be interested in trading their pick?

"I would trade the pick - with other players - if we could still get one or two players that we feel stand out," Pitino said.

Any chance of revealing who those players are, Coach?

"No," he said with a laugh.