The Celtics were desperately seeking Diop yesterday. General manager Chris Wallace was working the phones late in the day hoping to get an in-person look at 6-foot-11 high school standout DeSagana Diop before next Wednesday's NBA draft.
Diop (pronounced Jopp) came to the United States two years ago from Senegal and has been playing basketball for just four years. He's only 18, but he's got pro size at a little more than 300 pounds with a 7-6 wingspan.
With much at stake in this draft and not enough good big men to serve 29 teams, the Celtics are willing to travel to see Diop if he will not come to Waltham. The club is hoping to send a contingent to his base outside of Philadelphia, and there is talk Diop will hold a joint workout for teams there.
``He's the one in particular that we need to see,'' Wallace said. ``The problem is he's elected to go to the top seven teams (in draft order) for his visits.''
Diop helped Oak Hill Academy in Virginia to a 33-0 record and the No. 1 ranking in the country. But he suffered a foot injury late in the season and didn't play in any of the postseason all-star games.
``I saw him last December in St. Louis at a tournament, but that's the last time I've seen him,'' Wallace said.
In that event, star high school centers Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry also participated, and both now figure to go in the top five.
``I think if you'd polled the people who were there, they'd say Diop was the better of the three that day,'' Wallace said. ``But he's been out of sight, out of mind, and this is not the best time of the year to do that. Since he's started working out for teams, it sounds like he's been doing well, but we'd really like to see for ourselves.''
While Wallace may feel comfortable taking Diop if he slides, he is looking to book a visit with him so coach Jim O'Brien can get a look.
``Obie's never seen him play, and the tape on him is limited,'' Wallace said. ``And it just makes it more difficult to draft a guy if you haven't seen him in person. It makes it hard to put him above the people you have worked out. That's just human nature.''
But the Celtics did get over that nature when they took Paul Pierce, who never came in before slipping to Boston at No. 10 in 1998.
``I never met Paul Pierce until after we'd drafted him,'' Wallace said. ``We never had a psychological test with him. He never was in our gym. We never met him. I can probably trace maybe two phone calls we made to him. We watched a little tape and sat in the stands and watched him play in college like everybody else, and that was it. That shows you sometimes you can outsmart yourself in this process. You can have a little too much information.''
With Pierce, who played in college at Kansas, there was a much longer track record than exists for Diop. The Celtics also would like more input on Kedrick Brown, a 6-7 forward from Okaloosa-Walton Community College in Florida. Brown committed to LSU last fall, then decided to hit the draft.
``He's another guy we've tried to get in for a workout to no avail,'' Wallace said. ``He's sort of like (Yugoslav forward Vladimir) Radmanovic, a late climber in the process. He's an athletic kid, probably the best junior college player in the country. He started out as an interior player in high school and worked his way out to the 3 spot.''
The Celtics will be home for the weekend, working out 6-11 DePaul center Steven Hunter and 7-foot Yugoslav Ratko Varda today. Varda will stay in town and work out again tomorrow when Stanford's Jason Collins comes in.