Before Kevin Garnett was traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Boston Celtics during the summer of 2007, he almost went to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Remember: at the time, Garnett basically held all of the cards. He didn't want to leave the Timberwolves, but because Minnesota wanted to trade him, he essentially got to dictate where he went.
The Celtics ultimately acquired Garnett that July, but they were interested in the recent Hall-of-Fame inductee long before then. The problem was, Garnett wasn't sure Boston was good enough, so it took the C's acquiring another star alongside of Paul Pierce to convince Garnett to come:
“At first, before we made the trade for KG or before Ray, KG wasn’t sure we were good enough to win,” Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said on ESPN's Hoop Streams. “And so I think he was waffling between us and I think the Lakers might’ve been involved and tried to get KG. So it wasn’t until we made that draft-day trade (for Ray Allen). We actually made a trade for KG before, but because KG would not sign a contract extension, I wasn’t going to give up a lot of our young assets just to have KG for one year. So we went on and made a trade for Ray, and then we went back to Minnesota and back to KG, and we were able to work something out. And as they say, the rest is history.”
While this is the first time Ainge really outlined this himself, it's a story that most people were fairly aware of.
A duo of Pierce and Garnett certainly would have been formidable, but the Celtics didn't exactly have a great supporting cast. Adding Allen not only served as a move to convince KG to join Boston, but also paved the way for other key veterans—such as P.J. Brown—to sign with the C's to chase a ring.
The Celtics went on to win the championship that first season, ironically beating the Lakers in the finals.
