Earlier this week, Justin Champagnie boarded a flight to South Dakota keen to listen to again from his agent.
The Celtics have been supposedly all for signing him, a 6-foot-6, second-year ahead, for the rest of their season. Champagnie had spent most of this 12 months taking part in within the G-League for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, a stint that adopted a two-month stick with the Raptors which led to December. Another NBA deal might be shut.
Champagnie’s cellphone buzzed mid-flight. It was his agent. Time to fly east.
“I was really excited to get an opportunity just to get back on an NBA floor and help and do whatever I can,” Champagnie advised reporters Friday, when Boston formally introduced his deal.
Champagnie, 21, is now the fifteenth man on the Celtics’ roster for his or her ultimate two regular-season video games and playoff run. During a morning shoot-around, Champagnie mentioned he seemed ahead to seeing previous faces Friday evening in a house tip-off in opposition to Toronto. As a rookie final season, he appeared in 31 video games with the Raptors, who instilled a number of rules that helped him return to the best degree.
“Staying ready no matter what,” Champagnie mentioned. “You might not play a lot in the NBA, so always being ready to go and make an impact on the game.”
Champagnie referred to as Raptors all-star Pascal Siakam “an older brother,” and shared Toronto’s employees helped him discover ways to get his shot off faster and navigate rebounding area in opposition to greater gamers. In South Dakota, he averaged 18.2 factors and eight.0 rebounds per recreation on 52% taking pictures from the ground.
After going undrafted out of Pitt in 2021, Champagnie signed a two-way contract with the Raptors. He averaged 2.3 factors over 7.8 minutes per recreation final season within the NBA. Last summer time, he inked {a partially} assured cope with Toronto, however was finally waived after showing in simply three video games.
His solely prior contact with the Celtics was a pre-draft go to the place he met with president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. His twin brother, Julian Champagnie, is presently on a two-way contract with the Spurs. Justin mentioned he’s not solely excited to return to the NBA to pursue a lifelong dream, however hopefully play in opposition to his brother once more. And, on the very least, keep out of South Dakota slightly bit longer.
“It gives you an opportunity to just focus on just straight basketball. So that was a blessing in disguise,” Champagnie mentioned of his time in South Dakota. “But I couldn’t walk outside, I couldn’t do anything. It always snows there. Horrible weather.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com