Editing Ron Mercer (section)

====Boston Celtics====
Mercer was selected with the sixth overall pick of the [[1997 NBA draft]] by the [[Boston Celtics]] and was reunited with fellow Kentucky teammate [[Antoine Walker]], and [[Rick Pitino]], his coach at Kentucky who had just become the coach of the Celtics. Prior to Mercer's drafting, Pitino was recorded as saying that he did not envisage Mercer as having the necessary talent to be selected very high. Some felt this was just a ploy to scare the other teams away from him so as to increase the likelihood of Mercer being available by the time the Celtics got an opportunity to make their draft selection.<ref>"LOYALTY TO EX-CATS NOT PITINO PRIORITY", ''[[Lexington Herald-Leader]]'', published May 9, 1997</ref> It turned out it was.<ref>{{cite news|title=Celtics' Pitino won't tip draft hand|work=[[The Harlan Daily Enterprise]]|agency=Associated Press|date=June 23, 1998|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uAtBAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QagMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6678,3730827|access-date=May 30, 2012}}</ref>