CELTICS GREEN BLOG by and for boston celtics fans: Brian Scalabrine

August 16, 2006

Today we take a look at Brian Scalabrine. He is known as a good team mate, good locker room guy, energy guy. But he isn't known for his steller play on the court. When you look at who he is, maybe it will be a little easier to cheer for the red head who hopefully will be the Celtics' 11th or 12th man this year.

Brian Scalabrine is the Celtics that most fans love to hate. He is a hard working player that isn't necessarily good at anything but is a good "energy guy" and a good "locker room guy" according to all reports.

Scalabrine played his prep basketball at Enumclaw High in Enumclaw, Washington. He attended Highline Community College and averaged 16.3 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game as a freshman in 1997, helping lead Highline to a 31-1 overall record and the state junior college championship. He red shirted his second year at Highline. He transferred to University of Southern California and was named the 1999 Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year and also earned All-Pac-10 honorable mention honors as a 1999 sophomore ... He was the only Trojan to start all 28 games.

On graduating from USC, he entered the NBA draft and was chosen in the second round by the New Jersey Nets with the 35th pick overall. He played sparingly his first 3 seasons in New Jersey. His fourth season he seemed to come on a bit more and averaged 6.3 points per game in 21.6 mpg. He became a fan favorite in New Jersey.

Last off season, Scalabrine signed a 5 year deal with the Celtics worth 15 millions dollars. He played in 71 games, averaging 13 mpg, 2.9 ppg, and 1.6 rpg. He hasn't had the success here yet that he had in New Jersey.

On the personal side, Brian has 2 brothers and 1 sister. He married Kristin Couch in August of 2003 in Hawaii. He is very active in the community and started the Brian Scalabrine “Take it to the Hoop” Basketball Camp in Stamford, CT and runs several basketball camps throughout New Jersey during the summer.

He has several nicknames. In college, his nickname was Redd. After being chosen by NJ in the draft, they started calling him Secaucus Red. Former Nets assistant coach Mike O'Koren nicknamed him "Veal" because he thought Brian's last name sounded like an Italian dish and the nickname has stuck. Another of his nicknames is Scal.

This offseason he participated in the SEEDS of Peace camp in Otisfield Maine where he was a counselor for campers from all over the Middle east.

I found this article on Fox Sports
I think Brian Scalabrine set a record in Boston on Wednesday night.

Now the NBA doesn't keep such records, so it would be hard to source, but I can't imagine anything like it ever happening before.
Scalabrine is listed at 6-foot-9, 235 pounds. He played 34 minutes against the Cavaliers on Wednesday. There were 100 missed shots in the game. Scalabrine hauled down zero rebounds.

So while I can't prove this definitely, I'm going to go ahead and assume that never before had a player this size played this many minutes— in a game with this many missed shots — without collecting a single rebound.

Wesley "Stick" Person may have done it. Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues may have done it. But can you imagine a 6-foot-9 power forward not being able to gather in any one of 100 missed field goal attempts? Or any of the seven defensive rebounds that were available off Cleveland missed free throws? Zero. Nada.

That's right, despite playing 34 fewer minutes than Scalabrine on Wednesday night, you matched him rebound for rebound. Of course you didn't receive $36,585 for your effort. He might not pull down any rebounds, but Scalabrine does pull down almost 40 grand per game, thanks to his baffling 5-year, $15M contract. And lest you think Wednesday night was some weird statistical quirk, in his last five games Scalabrine has played 111 minutes and reined in a meager nine rebounds.

It pretty much says all you need to know about Veal. Doc played him a lot more last year than most Celtics fans wanted him to play. He is the player most fans would like to see cut from the team or traded. He seemed to be out of shape all season and never seemed to fit into the system.

But, he is obviously a good teammate and good guy. He was always the first one off the bench to congratulate a teammate coming off the floor and was always cheering his teammates when he was on the bench. For what he is being paid, I guess having him there to encourage the kids and help with the comradery in the locker room isn't all that bad. We could do a lot worse. We could have Blount back... A player with Scal's skill set AND a bad attitude.

Related Site:
Scal's Own Website

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