Celtics Reportedly Ready To Sign Free-Agent Knight

Los Angeles Lakers center Travis Knight has tentatively agreed to a seven-year contract with the Boston Celtics, according to a published report.

The deal, when finalized in a few days, will be worth about $22 million, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Knight is a free agent.

As part of the deal, the Celtics will renounce several of their free agents.

The 7-foot center, who played at Connecticut, was a first-round pick by the Chicago Bulls in 1996, but they renounced him in a salary-cap move when he said he would not go to Europe.

The Lakers got him for the rookie minimum of $220,000 and they were limited by a salary cap technicality to an offer of $326,700 for 1997-98.

Brent Smith, who missed most of his senior season at the University of Montana because of a broken foot, has a tryout with the Celtics.

Smith, a 6-foot-10 center, was injured when he came down with an offensive rebound in the first league game against Idaho State. At the time, he was averaging a team-best 12.6 points and 6.2 rebounds through 12 games.