Paul Pierce, Mark Cuban Recount Near Blockbuster Trade Between Celtics and Mavericks
Throughout NBA history, there have been numerous what-ifs that could potentially shake the league up.
A new hypothetical has hit the horizon as former Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce reveals that he was nearly traded to the the Dallas Mavericks in 2007.
In an article in Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, Pierce discusses the events leading to the near-trade, one that would have allowed him to team up with All-Stars Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd.
“I’m in my Prime and I’m watching all these other guys in the playoffs,” Pierce told Mannix. “It was depressing I thought was out of there. I thought it was over.”
Pierce goes on to recount meeting Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in Las Vegas and telling the gregarious billionaire, “I’m your missing piece.”
Chiming in on Twitter, Cuban recalls that there was indeed a three-team trade orchestrated to bring Pierce to Dallas but that the deal fell through because one of the team’s was unwilling to send a first-round draft pick to the Celtics.
It gets better. We had a deal done. We had a 3 way trade done. All teams agreed to their part of the deal. When we get on the trade call, the 3rd team killed the deal because they didnt know that a first was going to the Celtics. They chose not to do the deal at all.
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 7, 2021
In the 2006-07 season, Boston went 24-58, the second-worst record in the NBA prior to Pierce’s trade request.
However, the Celtics would go on to acquire star guard Ray Allen in the 2007 offseason in a draft day trade involving Jeff Green, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West before trading for former Minnesota Timberwolves cornerstone Kevin Garnett a month later.
While Boston would go on to win the 2008 NBA Championship after defeating Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in one of the most memorable NBA Finals matchups of all-time, the Mavericks would take down the newly-formed Miami Heat “Big Three” in 2011, in what was another unforgettable moment in hardwood history.
All’s well that ends well, as they say.
