Celtics Send Radja To 76ers For Weatherspoon, Cage

The Boston Celtics shipped Dino Radja to Philadelphia for Clarence Weatherspoon and Michael Cage on Friday, marking the first player moves by the new regimes with both teams.

Radja and Cage are both center-forwards, while Weatherspoon has played both small and power forward in his five years with the 76ers.

“Now we have another big guy who can play more than one position,” new 76ers coach Larry Brown said. “It gives us more of an option.”

Boston coach Rick Pitino said the trade gives him roster flexibility because Weatherspoon has one year left on his contract and the Celtics can buy out the second year of Cage’s deal.

The 6-foot-11 Radja played in only 25 games for Boston last season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Jan. 8. It was the second year in a row that an injury ended his season prematurely.

Weatherspoon started all 82 games last season, averaging a career-low 12.2 points per game. The 6-9 Cage has played in 657 straight games, the NBA’s second-longest active streak behind A.C. Green’s 895.

Marcus Camby, who accepted money and gifts from a sports agent while playing basketball for the University of Massachusetts, announced he would pay the school for its lost $151,000 share of 1996 NCAA tournament revenue. Camby has sent the first installment of $75,000 to the university’s education department. He said he would donate another $76,000 to the university’s health services division by Aug. 29.

Angry and defiant, Charlotte Hornets point guard Muggsy Bogues said he will not retire from basketball this summer. Hornets coach Dave Cowens had said Bogues should retire, based on tests performed on his injured left knee. Bogues, 32, has played for the team since 1988 and is arguably the most popular player in the team’s history, particularly with children.

Former University of Idaho athletic director Gary Hunter was named as deputy commissioner of the Continental Basketball Association.