Today in Boston Celtics history, Alton Lister was born in Dallas, Texas in 1958. Lister played his college basketball first at with San Jacinto Junior College, where he would be teammates with Oliver Mack. Once his stint with San Jacinto Junior College was done, Lister transferred to Arizona State to play for the Sun Devils, joining future NBA head coach Byron Scott, who played as their shooting guard. By his senior campaign, the Texan was putting up 15.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.
This would earn Lister honorable mentions with All-America honors by the Associated Press and Street & Smith’s, All-Pac-10 honors, and the Sun Devil’s Most Improved Player award. It also got him selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 21st overall pick of the 1981 NBA draft, for whom he would play five seasons.
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Lister would also play for the (then) Seattle Supersonics (now, Oklahoma City Thunder), Golden State Warriors, and another stint with the Bucks before coming to Boston in a trade with Todd Day in exchange for Sherman Douglas in 1995.
DALLAS, TX – MARCH 5: Alton Lister of the Boston Celtics (R) scores two points with a tip-in over Shawn Bradley of the Dallas Mavericks (L) during first half action at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas 13 March. (Photo credit should read PAUL K. BUCK/AFP via Getty Images)
The Dallas native would play a total of 110 games for the Celtics across two seasons before leaving the team in 1997 to sign with the Portland Trail Blazers as an unrestricted free agent.
He averaged 2.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per game with the Celtics.
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Celtics history: Alton Lister born