So, as I was saying in
the other thread containing tidbits from The soul of basketball (a great book by Ian Thomsen about the 2010-2011 season), it casually drops a huge information : the initial deal discussed by Danny with OKC in February 2011 was supposed to get us James Harden for Perkins.
That's how the story goes according to Thomsen : the day before the February trade deadline, the Celtics were in Denver (they were going to play against the Nuggets the following day, hours after the deadline had passed).
To quote the book exactly : "There had been no public rumors of any deal, but on the eve of the deadline, Ainge called Doc to warn him of something big in the works : there was a chance, said Ainge, that the Celtics receive James Harden from Oklahoma City in a trade for Perkins."
At the time, Harden was only in his second season, and averaged 12 points off the bench. But Ainge was adamant about getting him : "Sam Presti, the GM of the Thunder, had refused to let go of [Harden] over several weeks of probing by Ainge. On the morning of the trade deadline, Ainge finally accepted no as the final answer and called Doc to inform him that the talks were dead." says Thomsen.
Danny called Doc back a few hours later to tell him of the final deal concluded : Perk for Krstic, Nate Robinson and a first round pick (along with cash). Maybe you guys will enlighten me about it but I don't remember ever hearing about the Harden for Perk deal.
Checking quickly, it appears this was briefly mentioned at the time, or rather some months later, in May '11 by Sean Grande and Bill Simmons
in his podcast) but not otherwise.
Grande: Well, I'll tell you something, maybe you knew it, maybe you didn't. I don't think it's been said publicly, but Harden was in that conversation.Simmons: I've written it once. That was the initial trade.
[...]
Simmons: I think I mentioned it. I don't think I came out and reported it, but yeah, that was the initial trade.
Grande: Yeah, Harden was the name. When I first heard about it, it was Harden. It wasn't Jeff Green, and it was kind of an interesting thing at the time.
But what's even more interesting, is that Doc may have vetoed the deal. It's not what Thomsen is saying in his book but, 3 weeks after the trade,
here is what Doc said to ESPN :
"I was pretty surprised,'' Perkins told ESPNBoston.com via telephone. "I had no idea. I talked to Doc [Rivers] and he said he wasn't pushing it, that he was trying to stop it."
Rivers said he did stop it. That was Perkins Deal No. 1, according to the coach.
"At the time I talked to him, it was a different deal and I did put a stop to that one. But I also told him that something might still happen,'' Rivers said.
So, who's lying here ? Doc ? We'll probably never know the answer but it's quite interesting, especially when you consider
he vetoed a Rondo/Paul trade too if we are to believe Ray Allen.
Potentially, we could have had a team of Paul/Harden/Ray/Pierce/KG !
Topic: Ainge tried to get James Harden for Perk ; did Doc veto the deal ? (Read 710 times)