Fortson Dealt to Toronto

February 11, 2000

The Danny Fortson - Alvin Williams, Sean Marks trade was rescinded by Boston. The deal was rescinded because Williams did not pass his physical. Boston did not give a reason why Williams failed the physical.

February 9, 2000

“Fortson Dealt to Raptors”

The Boston Celtics traded F Danny Fortson to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for G Alvin Williams and F / C Sean Marks.

Note:

Fortson and Marks are free agents this summer.

1999 - 2000 Player Salaries:

Danny Fortson, Tor.: $1.679 M.

Alvin Williams, Bos.: $1.925 M.

Sean Marks, Bos.: $0.385 K.

Who got the better of the deal?

Neither club.

Why?

This trade involves 3 players who did not see significant playing time with their former teams. However, none of the players will receive any more playing time with their new teams.

Fortson, 6’7, 260 pounds and Celtics’ coach Rick Pitino had talked about a trade since Fortson could not nor would not receive a boost in playing time behind Vitaly Potapenko and Tony Battie at center and Antoine Walker at power forward.

“We could not please him with playing time,” Pitino said. “We could not fulfill his playing-time needs. It was more the inability we could not play Walker at the 3 (small forward). We thought we could get by with that. We could not get by with that.”

Now Fortson heads to Toronto where he’ll get lost behind the front court glut of Charles Oakley, Antonio Davis, Kevin Willis, John Thomas, and Michael Stewart. Fortson may even be dealt again before the February 24th trading deadline.

“The best thing about it is that financially, we clear up $2 million in salary-cap room for next summer,” said Raptors coach Butch Carter.

Alvin Williams, 6’4, and Sean Marks, 6’10, won’t see many minutes in Boston. Williams will once again back up Kenny Anderson like he did when both players were in Portland 2 seasons ago. However, G Dana Barros and G Doug Overton are still on Boston’s roster and will probably limit Williams’ minutes.

Marks is merely a throw in. It’s very unlikely he’ll be re - signed by the Cs this summer.