That scenario could have been the case if the Celtics landed the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA draft and selected Oden from Ohio State. Luck, however, or fate intervened, and the Celtics ended up with the No. 5 pick, which was parlayed into a trade for Allen, which in turn helped bring Garnett to Boston.
With a now healthy Oden playing his first pro game in Boston tonight for the Portland Trail Blazers, he and Celtics fans might wonder what could have been.
"There is always going to be that pressure," Oden said. "What if Greg went to Boston? There's going to be that controversy right there. You know it's going to happen. But I'm going to go out there and I'm going to play the game I've been playing. Play team ball and do what I'm supposed to do, and that's rebound and block shots.
"I didn't [go there], but a lot of people were always talking about me going to Boston. 'That could have been you.' If I would have gone there, that [Garnett] trade wouldn't have happened."
Veteran's day
The Celtics finished the 2006-07 season with just 24 victories and in desperate need of veteran help to complement Pierce. Boston had a plethora of young talent in Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, Gerald Green, Tony Allen, Delonte West, and Sebastian Telfair.
Pierce, however, yearned to be on a contender and voiced a need for veteran help in a meeting with owners Wyc Grousbeck and Stephen Pagliuca and general manager Danny Ainge during the team's 18-game losing streak.
"We said, 'You come back; Danny will get some help and we will pay for it,' " Grousbeck said. "That's the deal. It's a simple deal. Everybody was in. But we needed veteran help. I wasn't saying we would get rookie help. We needed veteran help and we got it."
Despite the handshake agreement, the Celtics couldn't help but be intrigued by the possibility of landing Oden, a star freshman center, or University of Texas forward Kevin Durant. So were the Celtics' fans as they chanted, "We Want Oden," during the 2006-07 home finale.
