Today in Boston Celtics history, Kenny Anderson was born in Queens, New York in 1970. Anderson was a sought-after recruit as a teen and played his NCAA basketball with Georgia Tech, where he earned two straight All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors, among several awards. He was taken with the second overall pick of the 1991 NBA Draft by the (then) New Jersey (now, Brooklyn) Nets, where he played five seasons before being dealt to the Charlotte Hornets in January 1996. He then signed with the Portland Trail Blazers at the end of that campaign as a free agent, who later dealt him yet again to the Toronto Raptors in 1998.

Anderson would finally find his way to Boston when the Raps dealt him to the Celtics five days later. He played five seasons with Boston, becoming a fan favorite along with Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker. Despite this, the Georgia Tech alum was traded one more time in 2002, this time to the Seattle SuperSonics.

He averaged 11.3 points, 3 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 1.6 steals per game with the team.

More birthdays

It is also the birthday of ex-Celtic shooting guard Jerome Anderson (no relation), who came into this world on this date in 1953 in Mullens, West Virginia. A native of Mullens, West Virginia, Anderson was selected by Boston with the 53rd pick of the 1975 NBA draft. He played two seasons with the Celtics, winning a title his sophomore and final season in the NBA in a reserve role, averaging 2.6 points per game in his career with Boston.

The Andersons share their birthday with former Celtic forward Bill (also known as Henry) Walker, who was also born in West Virginia in Huntington on this day in 1987. Walker played for Kansas State collegiately before being taken 47th overall by the Washington Wizards in the 2008 NBA draft, for whom he never actually played. His rights would be sold to Boston that night, and the Huntington native would play 37 games over two seasons for the Celtics, averaging 2.6 points and 0.9 rebounds per game.

It is also the birthday of former Celtics center Arnie Risen, born in Williamstown, Kentucky on this date in 1924. Risen played his final three seasons in the NBA with the Celtics, and would win a title with the team in 1957. He averaged 7.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game with Boston. The big man had spent his entire career with the Rochester Royals (now, Sacramento Kings), his rights dealt to Boston in 1955.

Rest in Peace

Finally, it is also the date of the passing of former Celtics point guard Kenny Rollins, who left us on this day in 2012. Brother of fellow NBA guard Phil Rollins, Kenny played collegiately at Kentucky, where he won an NCAA title in 1948 after returning from a pause in his schooling to serve in the US Navy in the Second World War.

He also won Gold in the 1948 London Olympics for the US before trying his hand at the pro game with the (now defunct) Chicago Stags of the Basketball Association of America (BAA — a precursor league to the NBA) and Louisville Alumnites of the National Professional Basketball League (NPBL — a professional league that competed with the nascent NBA for one season).

Signing with the Celtics in 1952 as a free agent, Rollins played a total of 43 games for Boston in the 1952-53 season, recording 2.3 points and 1.1 assists per game while with the franchise, retiring from the sport at the end of the season.

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