Rasheed Wallace had the decency to thank Danny Ainge for his 2004 championship ring. “Yeah, I did that when they came out to Detroit this summer,” Wallace said with a smile. “I definitely had to thank Danny.” If not for the help of the Celtics director of basketball operations, the Pistons wouldn’t have been able to get Wallace from Atlanta to cement a rotation that went on to defeat the Lakers in the NBA Finals. Ainge agreed to be the third team in the transaction, getting for his effort a first-round pick that wound up being Tony Allen.
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I was always curious about this trade. But I never quite put two and two together, namely that Danny Ainge played a key role in helping Detroit assemble a roster that could beat the Lakers. In the summer of 2007, Kevin McHale chose what some have called the "Al Jefferson poo-poo platter" over the Lakers' offer of Bynum and Odom. Many observers accused McHale of making that decision because he hated the Lakers.
Bottom line, but for the moves of Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge as basketball executives, perhaps the Celtics still have 16 championships and maybe the Lakers have 17.
Very interesting. On that point alone, I give McHale's tenure in Minnesota an A+. But that doesn't answer the question whether Danny facilitated the Rasheed deal to help build a Pistons team that could beat the Lakers.
The best part is McHale and Ainge are good buds. So you almost have to wonder about these two sharing high-fives behind the scenes as one and then the other thwarts another purple run at a championship.
2 comments:
Even with Rasheed Wallace nobody expected them to beat the Nets in the '04 playoffs and they were also underdogs against the Pacers. Detroit even making the Finals was a shocker and many people thought they were going to get swept. I doubt it had anything to do with the Lakers.
I remember right before he was traded to Detroit it looked like Wallace was coming to NY. But, suddenly the news comes he gets traded to Detroit out of nowhere.
I remember not thinking too much about the deal. I wonder what Det's record was before and after?
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