The story of the Monkey's Paw is a tale as old as time. W.W. Jacobs' 1902 short story tells of a supernatural paw that grants its owner three wishes, all of which are granted at the cost of an enormous collateral price.
Wednesday, the Boston Celtics paid the price for their third and final franchise-altering wish of the 21st century when Danny Ainge resigned from his role as the team's general manager after 18 years in the front office. The move was almost immediately succeeded by the announcement that head coach Brad Stevens would vacate his role and step into the void created by Ainge's resignation, signaling the start of a journey down an unfamiliar path for one of the NBA's premier organizations.
When Ainge was hired as Boston's general manager in 2003, the Celtics organization trusted that the man who started alongside Larry Bird on two NBA championship teams in the 1980s could return the legendary franchise to its winning ways. The brash executive quickly gained the nickname "Trader Danny" for his affinity for making deals, namely a trade sending former All-Star Antoine Walker to Dallas. At the end of the 2006-07 season, Boston sat at 24-58, second-worst in the NBA, with franchise cornerstone Paul Pierce demanding a trade if Ainge did not improve the surrounding roster.
Three months later, Ainge delivered, trading with the Minnesota Timberwolves for former league MVP Kevin Garnett and the Seattle SuperSonics for former All-Star Ray Allen. The fruits of the GM's labor resulted in a 42-win turnaround from the previous season, an NBA record, and the franchise's 17th NBA Championship. Boston had three superstars in their prime, an alluring franchise and boundless hope ahead.
As in the legend, however, the first finger of the paw curled. The formation of the Garnett-Allen-Pierce trio is widely accepted as the dawn of the "Superteam" era in the NBA, as teams and players alike around the league shifted toward a teambuilding model of stockpiling multiple elite players to chase championships. July of 2010 saw the creation of the second iteration of the Superteam, as LeBron James decided to take his talents to South Beach to join Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in Miami Heat jerseys.
The 2011 NBA Playoffs saw Miami make quick work of Boston, eliminating the Celtics in five games in the second round. A year later, the Heat battled back from trailing Boston three games to two in the Eastern Conference Finals, winning the final two games of the series to advance to the NBA Finals. That summer, Allen opted to sign with the Heat in free agency, joining the team that had ousted the Celtics in a move that ignited personal rivalries with Garnett and Pierce. 2013 saw the final stand of Ainge's masterpiece, as Boston fell to the New York Knicks in six games in the first round of the postseason.
The night of the 2013 NBA Draft was the setting for Ainge's second wish on the Monkey's Paw, as the Celtics executed a blockbuster trade that sent Pierce, Garnett, Jason Terry and D.J. White to the Brooklyn Nets for a collection of five players plus first-round draft picks in 2014, 2016 and 2018 along with the rights to swap pick positions in 2017. The trade worked to near-perfection for Boston; after one trip to the playoffs, Brooklyn saw both Pierce and Garnett leave for other teams ahead of four straight losing seasons. Ainge's swing for the fences resulted in a chest of assets as valuable as a pot of gold.
Despite the optimism, the second finger on the paw curled, resulting in years of stops and starts surrounding the valuable draft picks. There were whispers of a Jimmy Butler trade in 2016, rumors of a Paul George deal in 2017 and word of a desire for Anthony Davis in 2019 (desires that agent Rich Paul promptly snuffed out). The Celtics did cash in on some of the assets acquired from Brooklyn, however, drafting Jaylen Brown third overall in 2016 and Jayson Tatum in the same position in 2017 to set the table for the future of the franchise. With one wish left of three, Ainge swung for the moon with the goal of raising championship banner number 18 to the rafters of TD Garden.
On August 22, 2017, Ainge traded Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and their final first-round pick from Brooklyn to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Kyrie Irving. The superstar 25-year-old was a former Rookie of the Year, a four-time All-Star and an NBA champion upon his arrival to Boston and subsequent coronation as the franchise's cornerstone.
Fate is fickle, however, and even the trade for Irving came with a price. Boston finished the 2017-18 season 55-27, good for second in the East. A playoff run would come without Ainge's prize acquisition, however, as Irving was sidelined for multiple months after a knee surgery. The Celtics advanced to the doorstep of the NBA Finals before experiencing the same pitfall as the franchise suffered six years prior, losing the final two games of the Eastern Conference Finals to LeBron James and the Cavaliers.
The 2018-19 season saw Irving's return to the lineup and a 49-33 record for the Celtics, good for the fourth seed in the East in the postseason, but the piper was still yet to be paid in full. A first-round sweep of the Indiana Pacers in the first round was followed by a five-game defeat at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round. Irving shot 37-of-104 (35%) from the field in the series. In a cruel twist of fate, Irving decided to form a superteam of his own two months later, signing with the Brooklyn Nets in free agency to join Kevin Durant. You could forgive Celtics fans for taking the man at his word.
Even without Irving, the Celtics were poised to enter the 2020s as one of the elite teams in the Eastern Conference with Tatum and Brown as the cornerstones and former All-Star Kemba Walker joining the team in free agency. Boston finished 48-24 in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, good for the third seed in the East in the East in the postseason in the NBA's Orlando bubble. The Miami Heat met them in the Eastern Conference Finals, and again, the Celtics came up short, losing in six games. Tatum shot 9-of-26 in the final game of the series.
Throughout the 2020-21 season, the pecking order of the East worked against Boston. The Philadelphia 76ers, fresh off of a defeat at the hands of the Celtics in Orlando, blitzed their way to the top of the conference. The Nets got Irving and Durant back healthy after injuries in 2020 and added James Harden via trade; they shot up the ranks to second in the conference. Milwaukee, often a foil for Boston, claimed the third seed. New York, Atlanta and Miami also all finished ahead of the Celtics, who had limped through the season, battling inconsistency, a COVID-19 diagnosis for Tatum and a season-ending wrist injury to Brown. The arduous road reached its end when Boston was eliminated from the postseason in five games by Brooklyn, nearly eight years after the trade that altered the paths of the two franchises forever. The lasting image of Irving stomping on the image of franchise mascot Lucky at center court served as the symbol of the Celtics meeting an end that was both merciful and disgraceful.
Ainge's resignation Wednesday marked the end of an 18-year run as general manager that saw two Eastern Conference championships, one NBA championship and a whopping 66 trades. For all of the success, however, there was a price to be paid, and as the Celtics move forward with Stevens in the front office and a head coach's seat that currently sits vacant, one must wonder just how many four-leaf clovers are left in their back pocket.
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