Earlier this week, Justin Champagnie boarded a flight to South Dakota eager to hearken to once more from his agent.
The Celtics have been supposedly all for signing him, a 6-foot-6, second-year forward, for the remainder of their season. Champagnie had spent most of this 12 months participating in inside the G-League for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, a stint that adopted a two-month persist with the Raptors which led to December. One other NBA deal may be shut.
Champagnie’s cellphone buzzed mid-flight. It was his agent. Time to fly east.
“I used to be actually excited to get a possibility simply to get again on an NBA ground and assist and do no matter I can,” Champagnie suggested reporters Friday, when Boston formally launched his deal.
Champagnie, 21, is now the fifteenth man on the Celtics’ roster for his or her final two regular-season video video games and playoff run. Throughout a morning shoot-around, Champagnie talked about he appeared forward to seeing earlier faces Friday night in a home tip-off in opposition to Toronto. As a rookie ultimate season, he appeared in 31 video video games with the Raptors, who instilled quite a lot of guidelines that helped him return to the perfect diploma.
“Staying prepared it doesn’t matter what,” Champagnie talked about. “You may not play so much within the NBA, so all the time being able to go and make an impression on the sport.”
Champagnie known as Raptors all-star Pascal Siakam “an older brother,” and shared Toronto’s workers helped him uncover methods to get his shot off quicker and navigate rebounding space in opposition to higher players. In South Dakota, he averaged 18.2 elements and eight.0 rebounds per recreation on 52% taking footage from the bottom.
After going undrafted out of Pitt in 2021, Champagnie signed a two-way contract with the Raptors. He averaged 2.3 elements over 7.8 minutes per recreation ultimate season inside the NBA. Final summer season, he inked {{a partially}} assured address Toronto, nonetheless was lastly waived after displaying in merely three video 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 talked about he’s not solely excited to return to the NBA to pursue a lifelong dream, nonetheless hopefully play in opposition to his brother as soon as extra. And, on the very least, maintain out of South Dakota barely bit longer.
“It provides you a chance to only give attention to simply straight basketball. In order that was a blessing in disguise,” Champagnie talked about of his time in South Dakota. “However I couldn’t stroll outdoors, I couldn’t do something. It all the time snows there. Horrible climate.”
