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How The Brooklyn Nets Helped The Boston Celtics Claim Banner 18

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Danny Ainge is not a sentimental person. Back in the 1980s, he witnessed firsthand how the Boston Celtics’ futile hopes that Larry Bird and Kevin McHale would find the Fountain of Youth left the team in basketball limbo for two decades. When he took over in 2003, he made it clear with his actions that he was willing to make all the difficult moves it would take to bring Boston a championship, even if that ultimately meant sacrificing himself.

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The origins of the 2024 NBA Champions began eleven years ago when the Celtics parted ways with the two most important players in their 2008 title run. In 2013, sensing that the end was near, Ainge made a deal with the Brooklyn Nets—who had recently relocated from New Jersey and were looking to make a huge splash—sending them Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in exchange for a bevy of draft picks.

The Nets were eager to make the trade. In a win-now mode, they assumed that they would be in contention for years to come and that those draft picks wouldn’t be too valuable. They needed big-name players now to help spark interest in their new (and potentially lucrative) market. So, the Nets received Pierce and Garnett along with Jason Terry, D.J. White, a 2017 first-round swap pick and a 2017 second-round pick.

The actual players the Celtics acquired in the deal were Keith Bogans, MarShon Brooks, Kris Humphries, Kris Joseph and Gerald Wallace. For the most part, these were just jersey names that had to be swapped to make the trade official, because the deal was all about future value. Boston ended up with Brooklyn’s 2014, 2016 and 2018 first-round picks along with the ability to swap first-round picks in 2017.

At first, the deal didn’t seem league-altering. In 2014, the Celtics received just the 17th-round pick from Brooklyn, with which they selected James Young. Young last played in the NBA back in 2018.

However, Ainge’s unsentimental instincts proved correct: Pierce and Garnett were rapidly aging out of the league. By the 2015-16 season, neither were with the Nets, who were already rebuilding. Brooklyn ended the season with a 21-61 record and would have had the third pick in the NBA Draft. Instead, the Celtics owned the rights to it and used it to select eventual NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown.

The next year went even worse for Brooklyn, as they went 20-62. Thanks to the ability to swap picks, the Celtics now had the No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft but had no interest in Markelle Fultz, the consensus top prospect. Instead, they traded the top pick to the Philadelphia 76ers and selected Jayson Tatum, who was waiting for them at No. 3.

Ainge’s first plan to clinch his second championship as an executive involved signing Gordon Hayward as a free agent and packaging the Nets’ 2018 pick with a peak-value Isaiah Thomas for Kyrie Irving. Unfortunately, Hayward suffered a career-altering injury in his first regular season game with Boston and Irving skipped town after a tumultuous two-year career with the Celtics. Ainge’s Plan B involved Kemba Walker, and that didn’t work out either.

At this point, it’s possible Ainge realized the best way he could help the Celtics stay younger and more competitive was to effectively trade himself. In 2021, Ainge stepped down as team president, endorsing head coach Brad Stevens as his successor. He needed a change of scenery, eventually settling in as CEO of basketball operations for the Utah Jazz.

Stevens’s first move in his new role was to swap Walker for Al Horford, who revived his career during his second stint in Boston. Emboldened, Stevens went on to acquire Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. These were the players that ended up being the pieces that finally turned the Celtics from perpetual contenders to NBA champions.

Stevens, the rightful Executive of the Year, deserves the lion’s share of credit. Some, however, argue that Ainge should also get a championship ring for converting the Nets' draft picks into Tatum and Brown. Ainge, at least, doesn't sound comfortable with the idea.

In an interview with MassLive’s Brian Robb, Ainge downplayed his role in putting together the core of the 2024 championship Celtics. “Every one of those guys would have found success without me being involved,” he said. “I just feel like to be a small part of their success is fun to watch them grow and have success.”

Ainge can afford to be generous, having already earned three rings with the Celtics (two as a player, one as an executive). He also knows that when the story of this season gets written, it will be impossible to overlook how he helped lay the foundation.

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