Winning Bet

There are bets that end fine and there are other ones that not. There are flashy players signings that finally work and others that are better not to think about. Many times important decisions and money are not use at all, but sometimes they can mean a ticket for the NBA title. When Boston knew that they would pick 5^th in the 2007 draft, ending with the possibility of signing Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, Danny Ainge, general manager of the Boston Celtics, made a decision that would bring his team to the top of the basketball world a year later. That decision was based in a radical change in the plans that the team had in that moment for the future. In principle, that project was to collect some young players around a star, Paul Pierce, plus a 1^st or 2^nd draft pick. But with a 5^th choice it was already impossible.

The big decision, although it was thought-out, was made quickly. That night of the 2007 draft the Celtics transferred Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak plus the 5^th pick for the Seattle Supersonics star Ray Allen who was 32 years old. Ainge kept working and later, that summer, he signed the superstar Kevin Garnett, 31 years old, in an exchange for Al Jefferson, Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, all young players who were 22, 22, 25 y 21 respectively, the veteran Theo Ratliff (34), and a first round pick in the 2009 draft. That meant a drastic change in the plans for the team and everybody could guess their intentions: “we want the NBA ring”. From that moment of the preseason they were not the team with only 24 victories in the previous year but they turn into the most serious candidate for the title. The confirmation arrived as the games, weeks and months passed and they finished the season with 66 victories. Some of us had doubts when Boston had to play 7 games in the first rounds of the playoffs, but finally the experience, the “hunger” and the possibility of lose the last train to the title for veterans like Pierce, Allen, Garnett and others like Cassell, P.J. Brown, Posey or House, made the dream come true, and they beat L.A. Lakers in a final that relive the ones in the 80s. Garnett and Allen achieved what Malone and Payton could not in 2004.