Do the Celtics have something against foreigners?

It has been eight years since the Celtics drafted a foreign player with no US collegiate experience. In 1997, Aussie Ben Pepper was the team's second round pick. Since that time, every other NBA team has drafted at least one foreign player while the Celtics have remained steadfastly pro-USA (not including the 2005 expansion Charlotte Bobcats). The Celtics did trade for Croatian Josip Sesar, Seattle's second round pick in 2000. But even if you count the Sesar acquisition as a foreign draftee, the C's only move from being the NBA team with the longest streak of All American draft picks to being tied for the longest such streak with Sacramento.

The Celtics' record of staying away from foreigners has stretched over different owners, general managers, coaches and styles of play. At a time when most NBA teams were using late first round picks and second round picks on young Euros that they could stash on the continent for a few years, the Celtics were loading up on questionable US collegians. Kris Clack, Brandon Hunter, Joe Forte, Justin Reed and Orien Greene come to mind.

Obviously, when it comes to any draft, there are going to be picks that simply don't pan out. But what makes the Celtics' eight year run of no foreign draft picks so questionable is that the team had to know, that in many instances, it was just wasting a roster spot on marginal US collegians that were highly unlikely to crack the rotation. In 1999, Clack was the 55th overall pick; the 57th was Manu Ginobili. It wasn't like the Celtics needed Clack, as Michael Holley pointed out in a 1999 Boston Globe piece:

Where Clack will fit in with the Celtics is a mystery. Playing him at forward is a near impossibility, even though he plays big for his size and is a gifted jumper. You don't see too many 6-4 small forwards in the NBA. And when you do, those forwards have to at least make their 20-footers consistently. For his career, Clack made 30 percent of his shots from 20 feet and beyond.

In 2001, it was Joe Forte, a slow-footed, unathletic shooting guard with no handle, piss-poor attitude and a fairy godfather in Red Auerbach, over Tony Parker at a time when the Celtics were desperate for a backup point guard for Kenny Anderson (hence the midseason trade for Tony Delk). Forte played a grand total of 39 minutes during the 2001-02 season, his one and only year in Boston. It's safe to say that Parker has enjoyed a bit more NBA success.

Going foreign isn't a guarantee to NBA success. But it was hard to watch the San Antonio-Phoenix series and not think that maybe the Celtics' draft strategy has been flawed for years. Since the 1997 Draft, the Celtics have stayed away from foreign prospects. In that time, here's just a brief list of the foreign players that the Celtics had a realistic chance to draft and passed over in favor of stiffs that barely set a foot on the parquet- Ginobili, Parker, Hido Turkoglu, Mehmet Okur, Luis Scola, Boris Diaw, Leandro Barbosa and Anderson Varejao.

Draft success is never guaranteed but the margin of error gets a lot thinner when you're ignoring the rest of the world.