Tom Brady, Celtics Players Spent 45 Minutes With Kevin Durant Away From All Agents, Team Representatives
BOSTON (CBS) -- When Tom Brady was seen gallivanting through the Hamptons with Celtics brass and the players for the team's pitch meeting with Kevin Durant, it was unclear just how big of a role an NFL superstar would play in recruiting a player to join Boston's basketball team.
Now a few days later, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has revealed that Brady's role was fairly significant.
In a detailed conversation with The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy, Ainge explained exactly how the meeting with Durant went. First, a private plane carrying owners Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca as well as Ainge flew from Atlanta to Hanscom Field in Bedford to pick up Brady and Marcus Smart. The flight then went down to the Hamptons, where that group met up with coach Brad Stevens, Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and Kelly Olynyk.
After eating lunch with Brady, the Celtics went to their meeting with Durant. And after talking basketball for a bit, the Celtics' powers-that-be decided to let Durant hear about the team straight from the players -- and Brady.
"After we talked for a while, the players all went and talked among themselves. Tom, Kevin, and all of our players. They went off to talk without any of us or any agents or representatives from the team," Ainge told Shaughnessy. "It was just our players and KD and Tom, talking and asking questions. Maybe they had questions about us, maybe they had questions about Brad. I don't have any idea what was discussed among the players. That went on for about 45 minutes while we sat inside just shooting the breeze asking questions to one another in the house."
Certainly, Ainge and Co. put a lot of trust in the players and in Brady by letting them take control of the pitch meeting. And though Durant ultimately didn't choose Boston, Ainge said the Celtics made a great presentation. It was so good, in fact, that it completely flipped the Celtics' minds in terms of their chances of actually enticing the superstar to join Boston.
"I think it went really well, and when we left that meeting we felt we were in legitimate contention to get him," Ainge told Shaughnessy. "We went from not thinking we had a great shot to all of us believing that we did have a chance. We did allow ourselves over the next 48 hours to really believe that there was a good chance that we could get him."
Alas, Durant chose the high-powered Golden State Warriors. And as Ainge told the Boston Herald's Steve Bulpett, "Under any circumstances, we weren't going to be able to produce Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green."
