On this day: Maxwell, McHale drafts; Clyde, Shannon born; Brightman passes; G3 2008 Finals

On this day, Boston drafted Cedric Maxwell and Kevin McHale, Earl Shannon and Ben Clyde were born, Al Brightman passed, and Game 3 of the 2008 NBA Finals was lost.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the team drafted small forward Cedric Maxwell out of UNC Charlotte with the 12th overall pick of the 1977 NBA draft, their sole selection of note.

Maxwell would play eight seasons for the Celtics, averaging 13.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game, and would win two championships with Boston in that stretch (in 1981 and 1984), winning Finals MVP in 1984. After losing his starting role to forward Kevin McHale after an injury, the North Carolina native would be traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for legendary sixth man center Bill Walton.

Maxwell maintains a close relationship with the Celtics and their fans to this day, hosting an eponymous podcast and making frequent appearances on local sports media.

Kevin McHale, Jayson Tatum cited as Boston Celtics ‘traded NBA draft picks that turned into gold’

The Boston duo were one of 13 examples cited of draft picks that had been traded for a big payoff later on in a new HoopsHype article.

It is always a gamble to trade a draft pick projected to be a valuable lottery pick with little or no protections on it, and in many cases, such a move can come back to bite the team that did it pretty badly.

Among the 30 teams of today’s NBA, analyst Frank Urbina of HoopsHype fame assembled a list of 13 examples of such a trade taking place with the Celtics occupying two of those slots. The deals in question led to Boston picking up Hall of Fame big man Kevin McHale and All-NBA small forward Jayson Tatum (drafted by McHale’s teammate and former team president Danny Ainge, no less).

Let’s see what Urbina had to say about the two diamonds in the rough.

Ranking every No. 46 pick made in the NBA draft by the Boston Celtics

Our 11th installment of ranking every pick from Nos. 1 to 60, we compare the five picks the Boston Celtics have made 46th overall.

We have arrived at the 11th edition of this series ranking the picks made by the Boston Celtics Nos. 1 through 60 by the number they were drafted at, landing at pick No. 46, which the team has drafted at five times in their seventy-year history the Celtics have been a franchise.

The selections  made here began in 1918 and continued to the 1982 NBA draft, the most recent draft Boston selected 47th overall.

There were no stars in this group, though there was a role-playing champ among the five prospects taken at this late point in the draft.

There are no familiar faces to be found among the players we’re considering here save for the biggest Celtics history buffs.

As with earlier iterations of this series, we employ a rubric that focuses on what players have done while a Celtics above all else, with achievements coming before or afterward an extra way to rank prospects when the difference is slight.

With that said, who are the greatest Celtics drafted 47th overall?