Celtics legend Bob Cousy excited to see Boston draft Payton Pritchard

https://www.telegram.com/story/sports/2020/11/19/celtics-legend-bob-cousy-excited-see-boston-draft-payton-pritchard/6343685002/



Celtics legend Bob Cousy excited to see Boston draft Payton Pritchard



Bill Doyle
Telegram & Gazette


Payton Pritchard, shown celebrating a 3-pointer during a game last season, already has his first fan as a member of the Boston Celtics - legend Bob Cousy.
WORCESTER — For the first time since the Bob Cousy Award has been presented by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to the top point guard in men’s college basketball, the Celtics drafted the Cousy Award winner.

And Cousy couldn’t be happier.

“It made my morning,” Cousy said via telephone from his home in Worcester on Thursday after reading about the selection from the night before.


With the second of their three first-round picks on Wednesday, the Celtics selected Payton Pritchard, who averaged 20.5 points, 5.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds as a senior at the University of Oregon last winter. Pritchard was the 17th recipient of the Bob Cousy Award last winter.


In recent years, the Cousy Award was presented on ESPN in Los Angeles and the Hall of Fame called Cousy to speak to the winner on the telephone. There wasn’t such a show when Pritchard won so Cousy wrote him a letter of congratulations.


Cousy, 92, isn’t sure how much Pritchard knows about him because he retired from the Celtics in 1963, but Cousy practically invented the point guard position. After helping Holy Cross capture the 1947 NCAA championship, he won six NBA titles with the Celtics. He also led the NBA in assists for eight consecutive years, was named a first-team All-Star for 10 years in a row and was voted the 1956 NBA Most Valuable Player.


Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy was excited to see the Celtics draft Oregon's Payton Pritchard, the winner of the Bob Cousy Award last season.

Plenty of people still remember Cousy. He said he’s receiving four times more mail now than when he played for the Celtics and he attributes the increase to people having nothing else to do during the pandemic. That’s the modest side of Cousy shining through. Fans still love him.

Much of the mail consists of requests of him to autograph cards and he gladly signs up to 20 a day at no charge. He makes sure to include the person’s name in each autograph so they won’t easily be sold.


“A lot of notes,” Cousy said, “are from kids saying, ‘Mr. Cousy, my grandfather told me about you and we’re all locked in the cellar during the pandemic so we’re starting a card collection.’ There’s a story with each letter almost.”

The Celtics wanted shooters so with the 14th pick they selected Vanderbilt small forward Aaron Nesmith, who shot a school-record 52.2 percent from threeland in 14 games before a stress fracture in his right foot ended his season, and with the 26th pick they took Pritchard, who shot a very respectable 41.5 percent. The Celtics chose TCU shooting guard Desmond Bane 30th, but he is expected to be traded to Memphis.

Cousy said he didn’t get the chance to watch Pritchard play last winter, but he did view some highlights of him and he liked what he saw.

Boston Celtics
@celtics
Who else is excited to see @fastpp3 on the parquet?

8:49 AM · Nov 19, 2020


“It will give me some added interest,” he said, “when the Celtics start up again.”

Memphis point guard Ja Morant was named NBA Rookie of the Year this past season after receiving the Bob Cousy Award the year before while he played for Murray State.

Pritchard, the PAC-12 Player of the Year and a consensus All-American, could back up another Bob Cousy Award winner with the Celtics. Starting point guard Kemba Walker won the award in 2011 when he was with UConn. Walker signed with the Celtics as a free agent last season.



The only other Bob Cousy Award winner to play for the Celtics was Jameer Nelson, the original winner in 2004 who played six games for Boston during the 2014-15 season.

Cousy usually heads to Florida to avoid the cold, but he’s planning to remain in Worcester this winter.

“I saw my first snowflake last month in 35 years,” he said. “It was exciting.”


Bob


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