Today in Celtics history: House, Ellison signed
Kings moves up to No.1 and drafted Pervis Ellison. Traded injury-plagued center the following summer. https://t.co/m3C4pP1HFA— Ailene Voisin (@ailene_voisin) May 17, 2017
Ellison was plagued by injury for so much of his career, he was nicknamed "Out of Service Pervis" when he and Danny Ainge were both on the Sacramento Kings. Before joining the Celts, Pervis had been released by his former team, the Washington Bullets (now Wizards) after playing 49 and 47 games respectively in his last two seasons with the team.
The Celtics, keen to try and rehabilitate Ellison's career - he was just one season removed from averaging 17.4 points and 8.8 rebounds per game - but neither his body nor his game ever recovered. Ellison would miss significant time every year he was in Boston due to injury, and missed all of the 1998-99 season, his second-to-last with the Celtics. He would join the Seattle Supersonics for one more season before retiring, averaging just 4.7 points, 5 rebounds and a block per game over five seasons.
— Calicrownholder (@calicrownholder) May 26, 2017
Today is also the tenth anniversary of the Celts signing point guard Eddie House, one of the first moves made by Danny Ainge after trading for Kevin Garnett. House, who joined the Celtics after a stint with the (then) New Jersey Nets, was a key part of the rotation for the 2008 title squad, playing heavy minutes behind Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo.
House would continue to be a consistent source of offense off the bench, and a lethal perimeter shooter, averaging .412 from deep over his three seasons with the team before being traded with Bill Walker and J.R. Giddens to the New York Knicks for Nate Robinson and Marcus Landry in February, 2010.
Where's Eddie House when you need him @celtics pic.twitter.com/JdFqpcopmY— Macalatte (@MacNuppet) May 20, 2017
For more stories about the offseason on CelticsLife, click here. For more by Justin, click here.
Data: basketball-reference.com
Follow Justin at @justinquinnn
