BATON ROUGE – The National Basketball Association season opened Tuesday night with six former Tigers on opening night rosters, including two of the longest tenured now together with the Boston Celtics.
Brandon Bass, the 2005 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, begins his 10th season as the senior LSU member of the NBA and his fourth with the Celtics. His 4,944 points ranks sixth all-time among LSU NBA players and his 558 career games ranks fifth. He has over his career averaged 8.5 points per game and 4.7 rebounds a game after averaging 11.1 points per game last season.
Marcus Thornton traveled the country last season, spending most of the season with Sacramento before being sent to the Brooklyn Nets. Now he is in Boston with Bass for his sixth season, averaging 10.1 points for his 341 games. He was the 2009 SEC POY at LSU and earned second-team NBA rookie team honors in 2010.
Glen Davis, who won a championship with Boston in 2008, is entering his eighth year in the league with career averages of 8.7 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game. Davis has appeared in 440 games for Boston, Orlando and the LA Clippers for whom he has resigned for the 2014-15 season.
Garrett Temple has traveled extensively in his pro career, playing on several teams since helping Thornton as part of the 2009 SEC Championship season. He played for Houston, Sacramento and San Antonio in 2010 and San Antonio, Milwaukee and Chicago in 2011. After a season in the developmental league, Washington would pick him up in 2013 and signed him to contracts in 2014 and again in 2015 after appearing in 75 games last season.
Justin Hamilton was a second round draft pick of the 76ers in the 2012 draft, but was later traded to Miami. He played overseas in 2013 and a D-League All-Star in 2014 before Charlotte and later Miami signed him. He is with the Heat now where he played in eight total games last season. Hamilton was an All-SEC selection for LSU in the 2012 season.
Johnny O’Bryant III is the rookie of this year’s NBA crop after leaving following strong first team All-SEC seasons in 2013 and 2014. He was drafted in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft by Milwaukee. He played in summer league games, but earlier in October suffered a Grade III MCL sprain in his right knee and is not expected back until probably near Thanksgiving.
On Wednesday night, Milwaukee will be at Charlotte, Brooklyn at Boston and Washington at Miami, while Thursday the Clippers will open up hosting Oklahoma City.