Brandon Hunter didn't think he made a good impression on the Celtics in his private workout here. He was coming straight from predraft camp in Chicago and hadn't gotten more than a couple hours sleep between the night before and the plane ride.

The Ohio University banger had left for the airport some time after three in the morning, ``got here at like 10 and was on the court at 11, so I was extremely tired. I mean, extremely. My head was hurting, I was so tired. I hadn't slept at all. We were going hard and I didn't really think I had a good workout. To be quite honest, I thought they might have said I sucked.''

Evidently not. The Celtics took him with their second-round pick (56th overall), and now the reigning NCAA rebound leader (12.6 a game) is in minicamp with the club in preparation for next week's summer league. He didn't tiptoe around his belief that the Celts have a need for what he can provide - even at a measured 6-foot-6, undersized for a power forward. His goals are simple.

``Just to show them that I belong,'' he said yesterday, ``to show them that I can help the team in a lot of different ways. Being in college for four years and watching the Celtics for a long time, just seeing them not being a great rebounding team - being really good defensively, but once the ball goes up, not going to get it. . . . And then somebody just gets a bucket and just lays it in, that kills you, takes a lot of air out of you.''

You don't have to tell Jim O'Brien, who nonetheless poured some cold water on Hunter's chances at making the club (tight roster and all that). But the coach likes his game and wouldn't mind a bit if Hunter played overseas next year so the Celts could retain his rights.