One thing's for sure. Nobody can accuse Boston Celtics' GM Danny Ainge of being gun shy when it comes to pulling the trigger on some major trades involving high profile personnel.
First, he basically traded long time Boston head coach Doc Rivers to the LA Clippers for a draft choice. Yes, there are those that say Rivers "quit" on the team and forced the trade, but that's asinine. Rivers wasn't in a position to force anything. He was still under contract to the Celtics. They owned his butt. The only way Rivers gets out of that is to flat-out resign, forfeiting the many millions still owed to him, and starting over as a "free agent". Doc may or may not have made suggestions behind the scenes to his own front office, but he's way too smart to walk away from that much guaranteed money.
And just recently, the Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets have agreed on a blockbuster trade, involving a lot of players -- plus a few draft picks.
Thing is -- while general managers of pro teams usually hammer out the details of any trade, let alone a big one like this -- there's no way they happen without their respective ownerships signing off on it. Danny Ainge of the Celtics and GM Billy King of the Brooklyn Nets may have done the negotiating, but they have behind the scenes bosses to report to as well.
A little bit about the owners. In Boston's case, it appears to be a conglomerate. There's a guy named Wycliffe Grousbeck, who is listed as managing partner, Governor and CEO of the team. Wait a minute. Governor? Really? I thought that was a title reserved for the head political dude or dudette of each state in the union -- not a pro sports owner. At that, the honorable Wycliffe is joined by another Grousbeck, a Pagliuca, and an Epstein -- evidently as minority partners in the ownership of the Celtics. Excuse me, but somehow Grousbeck, Grousbeck, Paliuca, and Epstein sounds like a law firm from a John Grisholm novel that has gone terribly wrong. Then again, it couldn't be any worse than the one I heard a fried of mine hired a while back to represent him. I believe their names were Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.
On the Brooklyn Nets' side, the owner is one Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian national, that became a billionaire in the medals industry after the former USSR crumbled. It should be noted he ran against Vladimir Putin in a recent "election" to become the honcho of Russia -- and lost. Reports say he wants to run again, but Russian law forbids him from doing so as long as Prokhorov has holdings in a foreign based commodity. So as owner of the former New Jersey, and now Brooklyn Nets -- what is the guy to do? Simple. He's going to transfer the "offices" of the Nets to somewhere in Russia, thereby getting around the statute. Perhaps unbelievably, Commissioner David Stern and the NBA appear to have given him full permission to do just that. Prokhorov may be a lot of things, but I doubt anyone considers him a fool. Obviously, he knows what he's doing. It reminds yours truly of the immortal line uttered by an Admiral (played by Fred Thompson) in the movie The Hunt For Red October, when they were trying to figure out the motives of a renegade nuclear submarine commander.
"A Russian doesn't take a dump without a plan, son".
Speaking of plans -- I didn't plan to run on so long with background stuff. Sorry.
Will follow up tomorrow with the details of the players, draft picks, and who were the winners and losers in the Boston/Brooklyn trade. It seems to make complete sense for one team, but one is left to wonder -- what the hell was the other one thinking of when they signed off on this?
Hi J. Still here.
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