Former Celtics Draft Pick Dies in Car Accident

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Reports over the weekend indicate that a former draft pick of the Boston Celtics, Gerald Paddio, was killed in a single-car accident.

The Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office of Louisiana said Paddio was driving along a roadway outside the city of Rayne, when his vehicle veered off the road and collided with a culvert. The crash involved no other vehicles.

Paddio was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene. Authorities said the circumstances of the crash are still under investigation. Paddio was 60 years of age.

Celtics Draftee But Known More As A Cav

Paddio, a 6’8 small forward, played parts of three different seasons in the NBA. with his career beginning in 1988, having being selected by the Celtics 74th overall in the 1988 NBA Draft. He had been part of the storied Jerry Tarkanian-led UNLV Runnin’ Rebels team that went undefeated in conference play on its way to the 1987 NCAA Final Four, and after leaving the Celtics, would also play regular season NBA games for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Seattle SuperSonics, Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks and the then-Washington Bullets.

Despite his status as a draft pick, Paddio was waived by the Celtics out of his inaugural training camp, and split the next two seasons between France and the Continental Basketball Association, the premier American minor league at the time, He signed back in the NBA with the Cavaliers for training camp in 1990, made the team, and became a rotation player for the Cavaliers that season, starting 22 times and averaging 7.2 points and 1.7 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game.

That season of work with the Cavaliers would prove to be the majority of Paddio’s NBA career. In total, he played 129 games, scored 715 points and averaged 5.5 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game, but 70 of those games came in the 1990-91 season, and regular work was hard to come by. After leaving the Cavaliers, Paddio signed with the Portland Trail Blazers for 1991 training camp but was again cut, and thus spent the 1991-92 season split between the CBA and Spain.

Paddio’s Later Career

Paddio rejoined the NBA in the summer of 1992, when he signed with the Seattle Superonics on a multi-year deal, and played bit-part minutes of 41 games with them in his first season. At the start of the season year of his deal, he was traded along with Derrick McKey in exchange for Detlef Schrempf, but was waived by the Pacers four weeks later.

Later on in the 1993-94 season, Paddio signed short-term contract with New York and Washington, and in total played 18 games that season, averaging 2.9 points. It was to be the final stretch of his NBA career – however, Paddio continued to play professionally for another decade around the globe. He would play in each of Israel, Japan, Mexico, Lebanon and Argentina over the years, in addition to further stints in both the CBA and Spain, before retiring in 2004 at the age of 39.

Across his professional career, Paddio was known as a versatile wing capable of scoring in transition and contributing defensively in his limited role. He did not ever establish himself long-term with a single franchise, but his 1990-91 season with the 33-49 Cavaliers saw him receive more than 1,000 minutes of game time.

Mark Deeks I am continuously intrigued by the esoterica and minutiae of all the aspects of building a basketball team. I want to understand how to build the best basketball teams possible. No, I don’t know why, either. More about Mark Deeks