Garth Joseph

[wickerhd@crisny.org (Dave Wickerham)]

Here's an article from the Schenectady Gazette concerning the Celtics and
Garth Joseph.  For those of you who don't know him, he was the guy that all
of tyhe TNT announcers said should have been drafted.  Don't know whether
he'll turn out to be anything, but I'm impressed that the reason he is with
the Celtics is that they wanted to get started immediately while the rest of
the teams seemed to be taking a break.  Looks like we might have
"workaholics" in the front office and on the Court.

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                            Celtics bring in Joseph


By STEVE AMEDIO

Gazette Sportswriter
  __________________________________________________________________________
                                       

Former College of Saint Rose center Garth Joseph's quest to make the
roster of an NBA team has begun with the 7-foot-2, 313-pound player
participating in summer workouts with the Boston Celtics.  Members of the
Celtics staff began working with Joseph Monday at the team's training
headquarters at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.Joseph is one of
several free agents participating in informal workoutswith the team.

"They're just having him work out there," said Joseph's Boston-based agent,
Frank Catapano. "They want to see how his ankle is, and give him an
opportunity to do some work."  Catapano said the Celtics have no contract
with Joseph, but are paying him expenses for as long as he stays with them.
"I have no answer for how long he'll be out there," Catapano said."We're
just trying to see if we can work him into the Celtics' roster.  That's the
plan.  "It would seem like a good situation for them, because they basically
don't have any big men. Hopefully, we can work something out, but this is
just a preliminary thing."
Celtics officials did not return a phone call for comment, but one source
said new head coach Rick Pitino requested the arrangement to get a better
look at Joseph. Catapano said there's a chance the team could keep Joseph
for its
rookie camp, which begins on Sunday.  "That's a possibility," Catapano said.
"He could play some [in rookie camp scrimmages], but it would depend on his
ankle."  Joseph sprained an ankle at the NBA's pre-draft camp in Chicago in
early June.

Bad ankle hampers workouts

Since then, Joseph cut back on his daily workouts to allow the ankle to
heal, but did play in a recreation league Upstate Summer Basketball
Association game at Siena College Thursday, in which he scored 16 points and
had 14 rebounds.
Joseph went unpicked in Wednesday's NBA two-round draft.  Since then,
though, Saint Rose coach Brian Beaury said there has been strong interest in
the big center from numerous NBA teams.  The Utah Jazz, Atlantic Hawks,
Milwaukee Bucks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls have
also made calls about Joseph to either Beaury or Catapano since the draft.

"One of the reasons he's in Boston is that they wanted him there soonest,"
Beaury said. "Every team that talked to us wanted to work with him, but it
was all next week, or whenever. The Celts wanted him there right away.''



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wickerhd@govt.co.saratoga .ny.us