Today in Celtics history: Kelvin Upshaw born
While Kelvin had a long career as both a player and a coach - the epitome of a journeyman, playing his way onto multiple NBA teams and many others in lesser leagues - he only appeared in 37 games over two seasons (1988-89 and 1989-90) for Boston. He averaged 5.2 points and 3.4 assists per game those two seasons, effectively serving as second string ball handler and combo-guard behind Dennis Johnson and Brian Shaw his first season with the club, and behind Reggie Lewis his second season.
Kelvin played his college ball at both Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (1982-83) and Utah (1983-86), going undrafted, but working his way up from the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) to the Miami Heat, where he started the 1988-89 season, appearing in nine games before returning to the CBA club he'd been with at the start of the season, the Albany Patroons. He managed to fight his way onto the Celts' roster on the merit of his work over two ten-day contracts, only to find himself waived when summer came.He found himself back in green in fall, though, signed as a free agent in late November of 1989. The stay was brief, however, as he was waived just a month later, the day after Christmas. He had a quick stint with the Dallas Mavericks, then signed with the Golden State Warriors for the rest of the season, and spent much of the 1990-91 season back with the Mavs before leaving the league for good.
Upshaw would continue playing ball, both overseas and back in the CBA, until 1999, after which he began a coaching career in the CBA, NBA D-League, the NBA (as an assistant with the Mavericks), and even the Harlem Globetrotters. If you'd like to read more about Kelvin, check out this article written by our own tb727 for a finer-grained dive into Upshaw's career. The "Today in Celtics history" series takes a day off tomorrow - nothing to report! - but resumes on the 26th of January.
For more stories about Celtics history on CelticsLife, click here. For more by Justin, click here.
Data via basketball-reference.com
Top photo via sciencepole.com
Bottom photo via COMC.com
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