Brian Scalabrine is the Celtic 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 Danny Ainge and most 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 then transferred to the 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 and 4.5 rebounds in 21.6 mpg. He became a fan favorite in New Jersey.
After 4 seasons in New Jersey, Scalabrine signed a 5 year deal with the Celtics worth 15 millions dollars. Like Danny Ainge, Scal depends on the Brain Doctor for advice. Much has been made of his brain type being the same as Michael Jorndan's and some feel this is why Danny signed him. His first season with the Celtics, played in 71 games, averaging 13 mpg, 2.9 ppg, and 1.6 rpg. In his second season, he played in 54 games and averaged 4.0 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 19 minutes per game. He hasn't had the success here yet that he had in New Jersey. Many feel that with the new cast of veterans on the team, Scal could experience a little more of the success that he had in New Jersey.
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.
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 for kids during the summer.
The last 2 offseasons, he has participated in the SEEDS of Peace camp in Otisfield Maine where he was a counselor for campers from all over the Middle east.
This is from an 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 has played him a lot more these past two years 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 his first season and never really fit in. His second season he was in better shape and played better than his first season but still didn't excite many fans with his play.
Scal has been billed as a scorer and 3 point shooter and he certainly hoists up enough 3's during games, but for his career, he is only shooting 39% from the field and 35% from beyond the arc. Even Rondo, for whom shooting is known as a weakness shot 41% from the field last season. Maybe Ray Allen can tutor him a bit in the art of jump shooting and we will see some improvement from Scal in that area as well.
Obviously, Scal is a good teammate and good guy. He was voted to the first team "All Good Guys Team" last season. He is always the first one off the bench to congratulate a teammate coming off the floor and is always cheering his teammates when he is on the bench. Last season when Tony Allen went down with the knee injury, Scal drove him to the hospital. Tony's mom was with him and voiced her concern that they didn't call an ambulance to take him and Tony told his mom, "Don't worry Mom. This is better than an ambulance. This is Scal!" For what he is being paid, I guess having him there to be an energy guy and a glue guy and to help with the comradery in the locker room isn't all that bad. We could do a lot worse. We could have Mark Blount...A player with Scal's skill set AND a bad attitude.
That Wesley Person comment was way off. He was a solid rebounder. The Suns played him at the four in 96-97, and that bony so-and-so held his own on the glass. Great shooter.
