You’ve probably heard by now that on the night of the draft the Celtics traded Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Nets for bad contracts and draft picks, essentially slamming shut the door on the Celtics as a competitive franchise for the time being. There isn’t much merit in discussing the trade ad nauseum because the teams approached one another from diametrically opposed perspectives, the Nets want to win games, the Celtics don’t. In a way both teams got what they wanted, the Nets formed a killer starting five, the Celtics pushed the button on the rebuild bomb and received three first round draft picks (more than any other team was offering). The Nets will be a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference and should the team mesh, a championship contender. Their bench is stripped down to the barest of bones, they’ll need a few veterans minimum contracts to round out the roster and offer any help for the starting unit. In Pierce the Nets received a proven scorer who does not shy away from high pressure situations, he is a year older, but Pierce has rarely missed significant time throughout his career. In Garnett the Nets gained a defensive stalwart who will get his fare share of open jumpers with Brook Lopez playing closer to the basket. Lopez is the Net with the most to gain from the trade, he needs to shadow KG’s every move and mannerism, learn from his competitiveness and replicate it as best he can. Every young player in the league should have a Garnett to play with, to realize just what it takes to be successful in the NBA for a very long time.
The Celtics took back Kris Kardashian (deal with it Humphries, you’re riding this one out as long you plan on setting foot on NBA courts worldwide), who is in reality simply an expiring contract needed to make the salaries match tradewise. Gerald “Worst Contract in the NBA” Wallace will also be shippin’ up to Boston, this piece of the trade is most perplexing. It’s likely the only way the Celtics were going to get three first round picks was if they were willing to take on Wallace’s contract, but that doesn’t make his inclusion any better. Brooks and Bogans are also headed North on I-95, but again, this was all about the picks for Boston. In all likelihood, Humphries, Wallace and Bogans are all available to any team in the NBA for a slightly used Spaulding basketball, new or “like new” gym socks, or even a high five and a head nod. The Celtics are no longer in the winning games business and would prefer to pay as little as possible to do so.
For the Celtics the future is a mystery but the path is defined, they’ll do their best to lose games and hope for a great pick next season, always a risky premise for Boston (see Duncan, Oden/Durant). For now the Celtics will be irrelevant, the bandwagon is emptying out faster than a Milwaukee Bucks game at the end of the third quarter when down by 20 (trust me they’ll be down by 20), no better time to look back at the events that took place which lead to their reemergence as one of the premiere franchises in sports. It all started on July 31st of 2007.
After months of conjecture it finally happened, Kevin Garnett agreed to a contract extension and the deal was in place. KG was sent to a Celtics team featuring stars Paul Pierce and the recently acquired Ray Allen, essentially forming the new “Big 3” the former being Bird, Mchale and Parish. This union ended a miserable period for Celtics fans, ushering in a new era and never looking back to the failures of the previous season. In the 2006-07 season the Celtics won a mere 24 games, a pathetic number for a franchise accustomed to winning, but the numbers do not tell the entire tale. Off in the distance loomed two draftable figures that were unanimously believed to be franchise builders, Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. We know now that only one of them would, to this point, experience success in the NBA, but at the time it was believed that a first or second pick was striking oil. The Celtics received the fifth pick in the draft lottery. This is when GM Danny Ainge got creative, first dealing the fifth pick, Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak for Ray Allen on draft night, and later sending a package centered around Al Jefferson for Kevin Garnett. Paul Pierce was ready and waiting and the trio, paired with an emerging Rajon Rondo and a solid Kendrick Perkins created the best starting five in the NBA.
Then coach, Doc Rivers, finally had a team he could run with, but many questions remained, could the egos of three NBA stars possibly coexist on one team? Doc’s first move, get the team out of the country and as far away from media pressure as he could.
The Celtics trained for their upcoming season in Rome, a stroke of genius. Strangers in a strange land the Celtics were forced to establish relationships and rely upon one another, truly creating the team dynamic. The bond developed overseas held as strong as Karl Malone’s camel clutch. The Celtics were a wrecking crew, no team was safe in their path. In an age when no team could win without a superstar it was refreshing to see a team of aging stars put egos aside and commit to a team attitude, they were a throwback to the NBA of old. Their opponents wore their frustration on their faces, when it wasn’t Pierce it was Garnett and Allen, when it wasn’t Garnett it was Pierce and Allen, when it wasn’t Allen it was Pierce and Garnett, and when it wasn’t Pierce, Garnett or Allen, who’s this Rondo kid? Danny Ainge had built a flawless lineup and anything other than a championship would have been deemed a failure. They finished the regular season 66-16, an astounding record for a team built less than a calendar year prior to the beginning of the Playoffs. They opened with a seven game series against the Hawks, followed by an epic seven game series with the Cavs, culminating in one of the best battles in Playoff history put on by Pierce and Lebron. Next, down went the Pistons in six games, placing the Celtics in the NBA Finals against their bitter rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers. The stars had aligned and it was time for the NBA’s most storied franchises to do battle one more time. The Celtics defeated the Lakers in six games, featuring a 24 point comeback in game four and a 39 point smashing in game seven to win the Celtic’s record 17th championship.
The Cetlics “big 3” formation set the blueprint for the NBA which still persists today. The Lakers and Heat’s championships are in many ways a reaction to what Boston had done, adapt or die. Had it not been for the Celtics it is likely the Lakers never trade for Gasol, and it is definitely for sure that James, Wade and Bosh never have that slumber party were they talk about how cool it would be to play together. After all, the Celtics did made it look pretty cool.
It’s unfortunate that the Celtics were only able to win one championship during the Pierce-Garnett-Allen era, the numbers do not do them justice. The season after the Celtics won their championship, believe it or not, they were actually a better team. They started the season 27-2, let that soak in, that’s a ridiculous record after more than a third of a season, but it was one night in Utah that ended it all. Garnett suffered a knee injury that would see him miss 25 games and the entire post season. Without Garnett the Celtics still managed to win 62 games and take an Orlando Magic team, that would later appear in the Finals, to seven games. It is easy to assume that if healthy, the Celtics would have been back in the Finals in 2009. In 2010 the Celtics won 50 games and marched right back to the NBA Finals where they lost to the Lakers in seven games. The Lakers finally got their rematch, but a key injury to Kendrick Perkins left him out of the pivotal seventh game in Los Angeles. Despite his absence the Celtics still lead the Lakers with little time to go. Alas it was the Lakers night, the 20 free throw advantage they had in the fourth quarter didn’t hurt either, but sometimes (every time) that’s just how things go in LA in the Finals. In 2011 the Celtics won 56 games but were eliminated from the Playoffs by the Heat when the NBA’s dirtiest player, Dwyane Wade, purposely took down Rajon Rondo and dislocated his elbow. In 2012 the Celtics won 39 games in a lockout shortened season but found themselves matched up again against the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. Suspect officiating in the first game of the series saw the Celtics lose a game that was clearly officiated in Miami’s favor (another common occurrence in the Playoffs). In the end the Heat won in seven games, but Celtics fans were left feeling as though the series had been mishandled.
I say all this to tell you that had it not been for the Celtics string of bad luck, they likely would have won another one or two championships. The toughest of outs in any Playoff series and a perennial contender, this Celtics team was one for the ages. A “grit and balls” team in an age of teams and stars that many considered soft. The Celtics quickly became one of the most hated teams around the NBA, mostly due to Garnett’s bullying techniques, but is there any greater mark of a terrific team than unanimous hatred? Whether you continue to hate the Celtics or not matters little, but know that in hating the Celtics you hated a team that turned the clock back and fought fights they had no business partaking in, let alone winning. They just finished year five of what was believed to be a three year window, the Celtics were a team that any fan base would have been proud to call their own. They’ve traded away the man that turned the franchise around in Garnett, and also the man who will retire a true Celtics legend in Pierce, no small task, look at the retired numbers. One player is all that remains with the Celtics from their 2007-2008 championship team.
Rondo has said that he is on board with a rebuild and will not seek to be traded, he will also sit out some portion of the season as he rehabs his torn ACL ( a rehab that may take longer than necessary, there’s ping pong balls on the line here folks). Hopefully Rondo is not the next piece to go, he has a great contract and at times appears to be a marquis player. If Rondo is ever able to perform at his highest level night in and night out, there is no player better to bridge the gap between the Celtics eras of past and future.
As previously stated the future for the Celtics is indeed a mystery, but the history of the team is as clear as day. Despite their lone championship they are a team that defined an era and whose characteristics will seemingly not be soon seen again. Look forward to seeing what Pierce and KG bring to Brooklyn, there will be more than one game when you see their age show, but there will also be those nights when they look like they’re 25 again. The only negative in the Cetlics “new big 3” era is that we didn’t get enough of it, how could you not root for the aging pugilist stepping in for just one more round. For the former Celtics the next game will always be the last game.
