We all freaked out when we saw this picture. It was so layered… so nuanced…
THAT’S TOM BRADY!
Hey Danny is wearing Durant’s kicks.
What’s Kelly Olynyk doing there?
Well today, Danny Ainge pulled back the curtain on the meeting.
“After we talked for a while, the players all went and talked among themselves. Tom, Kevin, and all of our players. They went off to talk without any of us or any agents or representatives from the team. It was just our players and KD and Tom, talking and asking questions. Maybe they had questions about us, maybe they had questions about Brad. I don’t have any idea what was discussed among the players. That went on for about 45 minutes while we sat inside just shooting the breeze asking questions to one another in the house.
“After that, the players came back and sat down and we had more discussions about Boston and what’s good about it. We went back to our sales pitch. KD had a few questions. He was obviously well-prepared and well-schooled and very knowledgable about everything Boston, which was very impressive.”
Obviously this is a chunk from the middle… there’s a beginning and and end at the Globe that answers some of those question about how the whole thing came together and then how it ended. So that’s a must read.
So is the Herald’s piece on it… which includes this bit about whether Ainge could have pulled off a deal to bring in a bigger name to attract Durant.
“…in deals that we could have done that we refused to do, I don’t think that would have mattered for this. I think that KD really likes our players.”
In other words, Ainge would have had to part with one or more core players that were part of the reason Durant was attracted to the Celtics in the first place.
Ainge then paused and delivered the fundamental truth that doomed the Celtics’ pursuit.
“Under any circumstances,” he said, “we weren’t going to be able to produce Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.”
That’s the biggest issue. Really, only one team could offer this level of a roster. No one in the process could compete with that, and that’s, ultimately, what Durant wanted.
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