by Jack Serapiglia

Created on: October 18, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

The story of the 2007-08 Celtic does not begin with its trade for Kevin Garnett, or even the Draft Day trade for Ray Allen that paved the way for Garnett to come to Boston. No, the 2007-08 Celtic stories begins with Ping Pong balls, when the Celts lost out in the Greg Oden / Kevin Durant sweepstakes. The Celtic script up until that point had read something like this: tank the 2006-07 season, draft Oden or Durant, rebuild the franchise around them and an aging but still effective Paul Pierce, dominate the East for the next 10 years. 2007-08 was to be a learning curve, a transition. Pierce would begin to hand the keys to the franchise to whomever the Celtics were lucky enough to draft.

Only, the Celtics DIDN'T win the Oden / Durant draft. They won the fifth overall selection, which is like getting 4 numbers right out of 5 on a lottery ticket. Yeah, you win some money, but not enough to change your fortunes. So the Celts had to make their own luck.

Up until this past off-season, the Celtics GM (Danny Ainge) had made one questionable move after the other. The trade for Telfair (when they could have had Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy). The trade of Antoine Walker to the Heat (basically solidifying their championship run).

The one instinct Ainge had right didn't exactly work out as planned. They tried in vain to get into the Kevin Garnett sweepstakes. Problem was, KG wanted nothing to do with the Celtics. Didn't like the team's makeup. Couldn't see how him and Pierce could turn the franchise around. Wanted to go to Phoenix, play for a championship next year. Boston was not going to be that place. That was until draft day.

On draft day, the Celtics moved that draft pick (and others) for Ray Allen, an aging shooter who was most likely on the downside of his career. The move was questionable for a myriad of reasons, mainly that the Celts already had a very similar type of player in Paul Pierce. Seemed like a typical Ainge move. Celts weren't taking a step not forward, but instead were taking a step to the side. Were not going to be better or worse, simply different.

But the Ray Allen trade made Boston a more intriguing place for KG. Suddenly, he WANTED to go to Boston. After some phone calls, two old Celtics from Boston's last truly great team (Ainge and Kevin McHale) made the trade happen. And just like that, the Celtics went from an afterthought in the East to its prohibitive favorite.

The immediate future for the Celtics is very bright. They have the best trio in the East

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