Payton Pritchard Wins NBA Championship
06/18/24 | Men's Basketball
EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon Ducks alum Payton Pritchard won an NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics on Monday.
In 19 games this postseason, Pritchard averaged 6.4 points, 2.1 assists and 1.9 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game. Pritchard scored in double-figures six times, with a playoff high of 16 points in round two against Cleveland. He twice hit halfcourt buzzer-beaters to give Boston halftime momentum. In the Finals-clinching game, Pritchard hit a 50-foot shot to close the first half, the longest shot in the NBA Finals since at least 1997-98 when play-by-play data was first recorded.
Pritchard graduated from Oregon as one of the most accomplished Ducks in program history, earning 2020 Pac-12 Player of the Year honors and the 2020 Bob Cousy Award. The consensus All-American is the winningest Duck in program history, winning 105 of his 144 games played.
The West Linn native joins Jim Loscutoff (Boston 1957, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64), Greg Ballard (Washington 1978), Jordan Bell (Golden State 2018) and Chris Boucher (Toronto 2019) as Oregon alums to win an NBA Championship.
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