With the NBA Eastern Conference finals just two days away, one Syracuse player is four wins away from reaching the NBA finals.
Forward Oshae Brissett is a member of the top-seeded Boston Celtics. The Celtics cruised past the Cavaliers in five games in the second round of the playoffs, and are now slated to play the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Boston is favored to take down Indiana, which means some Syracuse history could be made for the first time in a long time.
Brissett, who played for Syracuse in college, is a bench player on the Celtics, despite not seeing the floor that often, the Toronto native would be the first Orange alumni to appear in the finals in 44 years.
Former SU forward Marty Byrnes was the last player from Syracuse to appear in the finals. Byrnes played a mere 1 minute in the 1980 finals as his Los Angeles Lakers took down the Philadelphia 76ers. While some SU players have made it to the finals since then, no one has played a minute in the championship. As some of you read this you might be thinking, will Brissett even play when he gets to the finals? Well, he has a good chance if the Celtics make it.
Brissett has appeared in five out of 10 of the playoff games Boston has played so far. In the matchup he appears in, Brissett averages 1.4 points in 3.2 minutes of playing time. The former SU forward had a lot more playing time in the regular season, averaging 11.5 minutes per contest over 55 games.
Brissett’s road to potentially getting to the NBA finals hasn’t been easy. He entered the draft after two seasons at SU and went undrafted. Eventually, he signed a two-year deal with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. After being cut by Toronto, he played just under two seasons worth of games in three years with the Pacers.
Only time will tell if Brissett and the Celtics can take down his former team. The two squads have never met in the ECF, with the Celtics leading the all-time playoff series 4-2.
