It's great having connections in life.  If you know someone who owns a pizza place and they give you free food when you visit.  Or someone who owns a car dealership who can lend you a rental car at the drop of the hat.  Well Reggie Hanson had that connection when it came to pro basketball that might have just gotten him a stint with the Boston Celtics.

He played at Kentucky from 1988 to 1991, meaning he wasn't even on the team when they lost to Duke in that memorable NCAA tournament game.  He joined the Celtics in the 1997-98 campaign for the Evil Emperor who was coach.  His stay consisted of 8 games, 26 minutes and 3-6 from the field for 6 career points.  His most notable accomplishment you wonder?  He'll be the last Celtic to wear #34 before it's retired for Paul Pierce.  Now that is a very cool answer to a trivia question!

The rest of his career was spent primarily in the Japanese Basketball League, where he claimed a Defensive Player of the Year Award and won the league's scoring title in 1995 and 1996.

I don't recall any of those 8 games Hanson played in for the Celtics that year.  His two 10 day contracts were at the end of the season, in March and April.  I did see the Celtics play the Suns that year in Boston, but that game was in November.  So I can't really tell you what type of player he was.

Getting back to his time with the Celts, couldn't you see the Evil Emperor contacting Hanson and being like "Listen how about I give you two 10 day contracts at the end of the season so you can tell everyone someday you played in the NBA?"  How else to explain that a guy that's been out of college for 7 seasons and doesn't get any invites to any other pro team's training camp, gets a call-up at the end of that campaign?

 [Speaking of the Evil Emperor, it's incredible how many players featured in the WTHHT segment were during his regime.  He only coached for 3.5 years, yet his roster was like a merry-go-round.  For the record, we have the following players already covered who played under him: Griffin, Stith, Carr, Dontae' Jones, Schintzius, Riley, Conlon, Potapenko, and Tabak.  Plenty more to come too.]



The most recent news on Hanson is that he's the assistant coach at the University of South Florida.  His 14 year old daughter, Tesha Hanson, plays for the Hillsborough County girls basketball team in Tampa Bay.

You can follow Reggie on Twitter here: @Reghanson 

For a complete list of the "What the Hell Happened To" Series please click here.

tb727 6/14/2010 11:56:00 AM Tweet Edit « Prev Post Next Post »