Popular actor and basketball aficionado Michael Rapaport thinks the Boston Celtics have a legitimate case to get three players in the 2020 NBA All-Star game.
Appearing on NBC Sports Boston’s Boston Sports Tonight show, the former cast member of Boston Public and currently starring in the Netflix-only show Atypical believes the Celtics are more likely to end up with a pair of their players in the midseason exhibition game.
More is not out of the question for the New Yorker, however, as reported by Yahoo Sports’ Justin Leger.
“I would have to go [with] — just because Kemba’s my guy and he’s been underappreciated — I say Kemba and Jaylen,” Rapaport offered on his Celtic picks for the tilt. “But you could almost — I mean, if you keep going on the way you’re going, there’s going to be an argument for the three of them.”
Third-year swingman Jayson Tatum would be the unsurprising third Celtic for the actor, who related his mother Brandy Cole was a fan of Rapaport from his four-episode stint with the 1990s series Friends when the pair first crossed paths two years ago.
“I met Jayson Tatum when he was in the Rookie All-Star game his rookie year in L.A. … The way I met him is he introduced — and this made me feel old — he introduced me by saying, ‘how you doing, I’m Jayson Tatum … my mom’s a big fan of yours.”
While that might feel like just yesterday to the actor (and, truthfully, many of us), that series — and Rapaport’s time with it — are now a full two decades past, nearly all of the Duke product’s life.
Watch the full episode linked here to hear the rest of Rapaport’s thoughts on the Celtics, his basketball doppelganger in Brian Scalabrine, his upcoming plans in Boston, and more.