Woj tells wild story about Danny Ainge’s mix-up with Rondo commerce initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Boston
There are scoops, after which there’s what Adrian Wojnarowski acquired from Danny Ainge again in 2014.
The ESPN insider joined Barstool Sports activities’ Pardon My Take podcast Wednesday and was prompted to share an ideal story he had about one deal Ainge made because the Boston Celtics’ president of basketball operations about 10 years in the past.
Wojnarowski did not disappoint, explaining the eye-opening textual content he acquired from Ainge shortly earlier than the Celtics traded star level guard Rajon Rondo to the Dallas Mavericks in December 2014.
“So, they have been on the point of commerce Rajon Rondo to Dallas,” Wojnarowski started. “… And I texted Danny, ‘Hey, I am listening to from individuals — I am getting the sense that you simply’re actually beginning to look to maneuver Rajon. Give me a name; I need to meet up with you about it.’
“And no response, 15-20 minutes, half an hour, I get a textual content, and it says, ‘Donnie’ and it’s a textual content with the phrases of a Celtic-Dallas commerce: attainable names in it, picks. And I am this going, ‘Holy s—.’
“He despatched a textual content for Donnie Nelson, the Dallas GM — he despatched it to me by chance with like their forwards and backwards on the commerce and did not notice (it).”
As Wojnarowski tells it, he agreed to not go public with Ainge’s unintended textual content — beneath one situation.
“I am sitting there form of it going, ‘I do not suppose this was meant for me,’ so I simply textual content him again, ‘You owe me one,'” Wojnarowski mentioned. “After which my telephone rings and he’s laughing hysterically, and I mentioned, ‘Simply do not let me get beat on this at any time when it will get carried out.’ And I did not.”
That is fairly the gaffe by Ainge, though it in all probability might have been a lot worse. (Think about if he despatched that textual content to a rival normal supervisor as a substitute?) And it appears like Woj bought his “scoop” anyway by finally reporting the ultimate commerce: Rondo and Dwight Powell to Dallas in return for Jae Crowder, Jameer Nelson, Brandan Wright, a 2015 first-round decide and a 2016 second-round decide.
Ainge did not precisely hit a house run with this commerce — solely Crowder lasted greater than a season in Boston, whereas that first-round decide finally turned Guerschon Yabusele — however he made loads of different shrewd strikes within the following years, most notably drafting Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum at No. 3 general in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
No phrase on how precisely Ainge paid his favor again to Wojnarowski, although.
