Reports are emerging today that Paul Pierce and the Boston Celtics almost parted ways on February 21, which was the last day of the NBA trade deadline for this season. There were many rumors leading up to that day that Boston might make a move, but most of the talks were regarding Kevin Garnett. Now we find out Pierce was pretty much all gone if not for the Atlanta Hawks wanting something extra last minute. Read more about it after the jump.
@IamJOE357
On February 21st, Paul Pierce was minutes away from being a member of the Dallas Mavericks! There was a 3 team trade all set up and basically 100% done. The Celtics were going to trade Pierce to Dallas, the Atlanta Hawks were going to trade Josh Smith to Boston, and the Hawks were going to get a few role players from Dallas, nobody really important. The last few minutes Atlanta wanted the Celtics first round pick in next years draft. At the end of the day Boston did not want to give up their first round pick with Pierce. You really can’t blame Atlanta for wanting an extra pick, since they were giving up their best player in Josh Smith and only getting a few role players from Dallas. The deal literally fell through only a few minutes before the 3pm deadline on that day. I actually don’t think that trade would of made any team better except Dallas. Boston would of been left with nobody who could score on their own since Rondo is out for the year, and Atlanta was basically saying they are going to rebuild if they got rid of Josh Smith. Dallas is the only team that is probably still mad it didn’t work.
