Player Preview: Gabe Pruitt

Born: Los Angeles, CA
High School: Westchester HS in LA
Race: African-American, if you can trust Wikipedia on such a topic
Looks Like: Ronaldinho as a little kid
Nickname: Smilin' Gabe

Height: 6'4"
Position: PG/SG
Drafted: 32nd overall by the Celtics, 2007

Career: Pruitt was a Parade All-American in 2004 coming out of high school, and for some reason chose to go to USC, alma mater of Harold Minor and Brian Scalabrine. Along with fellow freshman (and current Washington Wizard) Nick Young, he was team MVP. He led the team in scoring, assists, and steals, and made the Pac-10 All-Freshman team. His sophomore year was also successful- he was second on the team in scoring and made All-Conference. In his junior year, he managed to make himself academically ineligible and missed the first 13 games of the season. Making yourself academically ineligible at USC was previously thought impossible. He had a decent junior season and then went pro to avoid having to deal with turbodouche OJ Mayo.

On the Celtics: Pruitt is the de facto backup point guard simply because he is the only player on the team other than Rondo to specialize at the position. However, he seems destined for the D-League this season because he looks about as comfortable on the court as Eddie Curry does in a spin class.

Specialty: Pruitt is a good long-range shooter and defender. He averaged about 2 steals per game last year. He also had a 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio in the tournament. Pruitt is kind of a jack-of-all-trades, doing everything pretty well but nothing outstanding.

Controversies: The biggest was getting named academically ineligible. Also, he was the victim of an elaborate prank when he planned to meet up with a fictional UCLA coed after a game and the coed turned out to be the entire student body mocking him. Smilin' Gabe was sad.

Youtube Gem: Pruitt and Nick Young on Jim Rome is burning.


Prediction: I will forget that Gabe Pruitt is on the Celtics for the first half of the season, then he will slowly come along to be a DWest-style do-everything once a couple injuries hit the C's. I actually have high hopes for Smilin' Gabe, but he is going to come along slowly this year.Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2007/10/player-preview-gabe-pruitt.html
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