No, this one is pretty much confirmed as true. Not only did Danny want Swift on draft night, but it's been reported that he contacted Seattle numerous times about him, including after we drafted Gerald Green, and in last year's discussions involving Ray Allen.
Danny really liked Swift, and would have taken him. Of course, we have no idea if Danny's faith in Swift was founded, because he can't stay healthy.
what exactly is confirmed as "true"?
Danny liking Swift doesn't mean he would have taken him over Big Al because Big Al ALSO was not supposed to be there when we picked....
Danny wanting to draft Swift also doesn't confirm anything because we have no idea of how they viewed the relative value of either.
i have never seen a report that stacked up Swift vs Big Al. in fact, the surprise was that Big Al slipped to us....
The rumors pre-draft were that we loved Swift first, and Big Al second. Everyone knew this. It wasn't a shock when we chose Big Al, but it was clear to pundits at the time that he was the second choice.
Conveniently, now, people want to act like the Swift choice was a "smoke screen", despite Danny's purported second choice (Big Al) being the player we actually took. It's not much of a "smoke screen" when you take one of the players everyone had been linking you to for weeks (much like happened the year before, where Ainge's desire for Marcus Banks was well known by everyone).
Why all the revisionist history? Danny liked a player better than Big Al. Who knows -- maybe Swift justified Danny's infatuation, and only hasn't reached his potential due to injuries. It's no way a slight against Danny, but it certainly does show that sometimes luck plays a big factor in successful drafting.
Anyway, here's how Steve Bulpett described it immediately after the draft:
Yeah, the Celtics got one of the guys they'd targeted with the 15th pick.
But that didn't stop Danny Ainge from spending much of yesterday trying to move up to assure himself of his fondest wish.
The Celts offered No. 15 and either 24 or 25 to get up for high school 7-footer Robert Swift. Managing partner Wyc Grousbeck was even willing to part with cash to sweeten the deal. But all of that wasn't enough to get it done.
When clubs ahead asked for 15 and Jiri Welsch, the conversations ended.
So the Celtics opened their arms and took 19-year-old power forward Al Jefferson at 15.
...
`There were deal possibilities,'' said Ainge, ``but as it unfolded and it looked like we were going to get Jefferson or Swift - those were the two guys we targeted as the top big guys - then we didn't really want to pay the price to do anything different.
``We felt like we had to get one of those two guys, Swift or Jefferson, and that's where the contingencies were built. But just a combination of picks wasn't going to do it. It would have had to be a player. Teams had interest in Jiri, and we didn't want to make that sacrifice. We think Jiri is better than a lot of the guys that were being drafted from 5-10.''
Topic: Owe alot of thanks to Seattle for #17- Ainge wanted Swift instead of Jefferson (Read 28064 times)