John Celestand was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the No. 30 overall pick of the 1999 NBA draft, as a 6’4″ point guard. He was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 1999-2000 championship team where he played alongside Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
Mr. Celestand spent several years playing professionally on some of the most famous European teams in Italy, France, Germany and the Ukraine.

Currently, Mr. Celestand, through Celestand Consulting, serves as a basketball color analyst for the ESPN family of networks, which include ESPN Regional Television, ESPNU, ESPN3.com and The Big East Network. He covers Big East Conference College basketball games in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. He also is a radio color analyst for IMG College covering the Big East Game of the Week. In addition, through Celestand Consulting, he serves as a studio color analyst for Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia covering the Philadelphia 76ers.

John has also worked as a writer for the Big East Conference, Dime Magazine, Slam Magazine, and was author of his own column “Around the Big East” for Sportsnet New York.

In addition to being a sports announcer, Mr. Celestand works as a leadership counselor.  Through Celestand Consulting, he works with the Heroes and Cool Kids and Piscataway Municipal Alliance organizations mentoring high school and middle school students about bullying, sportsmanship and the dangers of drugs and alcohol.  Mr. Celestand has worked with over 5000 kids in more than 50 schools across the state of New Jersey.

John was born March 6, 1977, in Houston, Texas. He split his childhood between New Orleans, LA and Piscataway, NJ. He attended Piscataway High School in Piscataway, N.J., graduating in 1995.

In 1994 and 1995 he was a New Jersey First Team All-State basketball player while also winning two Middlesex County championships. He averaged 19.0 points, 5.5 assists and 5.9 rebounds in his senior year. He was voted The News Tribune Player of the Year in 1994, while leading his team to the Group IV State Championship over Teaneck High School. He was voted one of the top 50 high school basketball players in the country in 1995.

John received scholarship offers from Rutgers, Seton Hall, Boston College, Florida, Georgetown and St. Joseph’s before finally deciding on Villanova University. He was voted to the Big East Academic All-Star team as a freshman in 1995. Mr. Celestand scored 1,227 career points at Villanova, while dishing out 450 assists, which ranks 9th all time in Villanova history. He graduated with his Bachelor’s Degree in Communications Media and Film in 1999.