I’m a big basketball fan. My favorite team is the Boston Celtics. If you are a fan of the NBA and follow the professional game at all, you know that the Celtics are one of the league’s iconic teams.

Like all organizations that have been around for any length of time, there are those periods when you lose your way, requiring reassessment and analysis to figure out what’s gone wrong. That’s where the Celtics were at during the summer of 2007 after closing out a dismal 2006-2007 season with a record of 24-58 in April, one of the worst Celtics’ seasons ever.

The team’s general manager, Danny Ainge, who had played for the Celtics during the Larry Bird glory years in the 1980s knew something had to be done and made a couple of amazing chess moves on the personnel side. This resulted in the long-awaited 17^th banner that fans had been clamoring for since 1986, the last year the storied team won a championship. Continue reading →