Former NBA player John Celestand has come back to his New Jersey roots, as a Garden State basketball play-by-play announcer for MSG Varsity. Celestand (on right) is pictured with fellow sports producer Lou Brogno.

 

BETHPAGE, N.Y., January 25, 2010 – John Celestand, former NBA player and member of the Los Angeles Lakers’ championship team in 2000, has come back to his New Jersey roots, as a Garden State basketball play-by-play announcer for MSG Varsity.

 Celestand, an alumnus of Piscataway High School, helped lead the Chiefs to two consecutive County Championships. He went on to play at Villanova University scoring, 227 points in 124 career games from 1995-99. He was drafted in the second round of the 1999 NBA Draft by the Lakers.

 On his new role at MSG Varsity, Celestand said, “Not every kid can play in the NBA or in college. But how about being the announcer that gets to say a kid’s name for the first time? It’s phenomal and I am very excited to be a part of this.”

 About MSG Varsity

MSG Varsity is a multi-platform suite of services comprised of: a 24/7 television network, a comprehensive online destination, and a groundbreaking interactive service, all dedicated to high school sports, academics and activities happening throughout the tri-state area.  Content for these services includes MSG Varsity’s professionally produced programming as well as content created by the high schools themselves.  Working in partnership with MSG Varsity, students and faculty are given extraordinary access to curriculum and training in multimedia creation and distribution, empowering them to become active participants in telling their school’s stories.  MSG Varsity is a Cablevision exclusive service not available to satellite or phone company TV subscribers and reaches three million households throughout the New York market.  For more information, please visit www.msgvarsity.com.