1997–98 Boston Celtics season 1997–98 Boston Celtics season The 1997–98 NBA season was the 52nd season for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association. In the 1997 NBA draft, the Celtics selected Chauncey Billups out of the University of Colorado with the third pick. Billups only spent half of his rookie season in Boston, and was traded along with Dee Brown to the Toronto Raptors for Kenny Anderson at midseason. The Celtics also had the sixth pick in the draft and selected Ron Mercer from the University of Kentucky. In the offseason, they acquired second-year forward Walter McCarty from the New York Knicks
Boston Celtics team. FIBA, the body which governs international basketball, has selected two players associated with the Celtics to the FIBA Hall of Fame for contributions to international basketball. The Celtics hold the draft rights to the following unsigned draft picks who have been playing outside the NBA. A drafted player is ostensibly either an international draftee or a college draftee who is not signed by the team that drafted him, is allowed to sign with any non-NBA teams. In this case, the team retains the player's draft rights in the NBA until one year after the player's contract with the non-NBA