Brandon Hunter, who played for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has died at the age of 42.

Ohio University’s head basketball coach Jeff Boals broke the news of Hunter’s death on social media Tuesday night, writing on X (formerly known as Twitter) that it was a “Sad day for Bobcat Nation.”

“Brandon Hunter, Gone way too soon,” he added. “One of the best to ever put on the green and white. #RIP.”

Boals did not provide information about how the former NBA star may have died.

Hunter had been a standout basketball player at Withrow University High School before going on to become a Bobcat with Ohio University’s men’s basketball team from 1999-2003, reported The Cincinnati Enquirer.

During his time there, he earned several recognitions for playing the sport including receiving the All-Mid-American Conference Freshman Team honors in 2000 and becoming a three-time All-MAC First Team honoree, added The Cincinnati Enquirer. During his senior year at the university, Hunter led the entire NCAA in rebounding, per Fox News.

Due to his star performance with the Bobcats, Hunter eventually went on to be chosen by the Boston Celtics in the second round of the 2003 NBA draft, with the 56th overall pick. He played one season with the Celtics, where he played 36 games and averaged 3.5 points and 3.3 rebounds, per Fox News.

He was then traded to the Orlando Magic, where he averaged 3.1 points and 2.2 rebounds in 31 games during the 2004-2005 season.

We are terribly saddened to learn of the loss of our former teammate, Brandon Hunter,” the Orlando Magic said in a statement commemorating the basketball star. “We send our deepest condolences to the entire Hunter family.”

The note was signed by the Magic’s owners, the DeVos family, as well as players, coaches and staff of the team.

Former NBA player T.J. Ford, who briefly played with Hunter when he was signed by the Milwaukee Bucks as a free agent in 2005, also reacted to the news on X, saying, “We just spoke last week. “Losing a lot of my friends lately.”

After leaving the NBA, Hunter went on to play basketball in countries including Greece, Italy, Puerto Rico and Turkey before returning to Cincinnati to pursue a career in real estate and local sports management, according to Cincinnati local station WCPO-TV.

“I told myself that once I was done playing, I was going to go to school for real estate and get my license no matter where I was,” Hunter told the news outlet in a profile honoring him during his induction into the Withrow Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017. Despite this, he added that he was never fully able to stray from his passion of basketball.

 

“I initially wanted to go into coaching. But with my background and everything that I learned about the collective bargaining agreement in the NBA and the transactions I’ve seen while living abroad, the understanding of how teams recruit and how different styles are in different countries, I decided to go into management. I thought it would be where I would blossom and be the best,” he said.

Hunter was inducted into Ohio University’s Kermit Blosser Ohio Athletics Hall of Fame last year, per The Cincinnati Enquirer.

According to WCPO-TV, he leaves behind a wife Mary, and two children, Andrew and Tristan.

BREAKING NEWS! BIG SURPRISE CELTICS ANNOUNCING! 2 TRADE OPTIONS! BOSTON CELTICS NEWS!

The Boston Celtics and the Portland Trail Blazers confirmed on Sunday that point guard Jrue Holiday had been dealt.

Holiday was traded to Portland for guard Malcolm Brogdon, center Rob Williams, a 2029 unprotected first-round selection from Boston, and a 2024 first-round pick from the Golden State Warriors.

Four days prior, Holiday traveled to Portland as part of a three-team transaction that brought Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard to the Blazers

. The Bucks’ 2029 first-round pick, Holiday, Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, and draft picks from 2028 and 2030 were all acquired by the Trail Blazers in the deal.

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Cavaliers Guard Set To Miss Multiple Weeks After Injury Vs. Celtics

It’s not looking good in Cleveland

Cleveland’s 116-107 defeat to the Celtics was one of just several losses the Cavaliers suffered on Thursday night on their way out of Boston.

While trailing the Celtics by double figures in the third quarter, Cavaliers All-Star guard Darius Garland underwent a costly injury.

The 23-year-old, who stands at 6-foot-1, collided with Boston’s 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis during a drive to the basket, prompting a trip to Cleveland’s locker room for a medical evaluation before returning.

Yet, despite finishing the night with 19 points, two rebounds and three assists, Garland still suffered a fractured jaw.

After undergoing a CT scan early Friday morning, the Cavaliers announced that Garland will undergo surgery requiring a four-week absence from the team — piling on to Cleveland’s disappointing 13-12 start during a three-game losing streak.

Cleveland is now left undermanned moving forward, also losing center Evan Mobley with a knee injury which will also require surgery.

Averaging a double-double (16 points, 10.5 rebounds) thus far, Mobley could miss an even much more extended period from the floor than Garland amid recovery.

That’ll pose a massive challenge for Cavaliers head coach J.B Bickerstaff who doesn’t feel Cleveland is that far off from making its presence felt in the Eastern Conference.

“We’re still waiting to be complete, but I think we’ve shown what we’re capable and the level we can play at,” Bickerstaff told reporters postgame on Thursday night.

“… I think we’re not far, but it’s just gonna take the commitment from one another to get there.”

Seated as the ninth seed in the East, the Cavaliers have split their last 10 games at 5-5, including two losses to the Celtics.

When a Celtic puts up a three, I feel lots of different ways. So I decided to rank those feelings for the sake of academic study.

I have a theory that different Celtics players shooting the basketball can elicit a wide range of emotions and physical reactions, and I think this is worthy of academic study.

Getting this study funded has proved more difficult than I thought, but I can anecdotally confirm that how I feel when certain Celtics take a shot varies massively from player to player.

It goes beyond if I think the shot is going in or not, but that certainly factors into the experience.

Since the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control don’t want a piece of this groundbreaking research, I’ve decided to produce a first draft here at CelticsBlog. Call it an ad-hoc peer reviewing process.

I’ve decided to situate this study on the three-pointer, as the Celtics rely more and more on winning the three-point variance battle.

They attempt 43 entire threes per game, the most of any team in the league. Everyone in the rotation can shoot, so the Celtics’ analytics-based staff wants to exploit that advantage to its fullest.

Since this is a first draft, we’re only ranking the five Celtics who attempt the most threes per game.

You can imagine Jrue Holiday, Payton Pritchard, and Al Horford come in somewhere behind these guys, though Big Al might claw his way into the top five if he keeps it up.

These guys are ranked from most to least confidence-inducing-when-they-shoot-a-three.

Maybe one day with more funding we can extend this to the entire roster, or perhaps—with a lot more funding—the entire league.

Without further ado, I present the first draft of the Shooter Freak-Out Index: how I feel when each Celtic shoots a three pointer.

(For maximum objectivity, I’m going to give an example of each guy’s shot with a clip of them missing a three from the December 12th win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Misses tell us more than makes sometimes.)