Yardbarker
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  If I were to tell you there was a guy who was Larry Bird's personal rebounder for shooting sessions, you might think "it's pretty neat."  But what if the same guy was arrested for indecent exposure in a hotel?  You might think, "pervert" or "bad luck."  But what if that same guy was then in a car with Jamal Tinsley and got shot?  You might think "it's time to write a book!"  This all actually happened to Joe Qatato, pictured left of the reclined Larry Bird above.Qatato met Bird in 1979 when Joe was a student at Emerson College in Boston and a public relations intern with the Celtics and Bird was a rookie with the Celtics.  Fast forward to the 80s, and Qatato held multiple roles with Boston including equipment manager, van-driver and masseuse [TB tangent: I remember as a kid seeing him with the Celtics' warmup on the bench and "Qatato" on the back and wondering who it was.  There was Ray Melchiorre at the time too, who was the trainer (before Ed Lacerte) and he also had the warm-up with "Melchiorre" on the

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