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Maybe I should have done my best Gant imitation and made this ten steps from Dominique Wilkins to Banner 17.

Any how:

In 1994 Dominique Wilkins signed with the Boston Celtics. This infuriated Larry Bird who was working with the team as a special consultant. Bird had a lot of respect for 'Nique but felt at his advanced age would not help the team enough to justify his salary. That was the end of Bird on the Celtics payroll. Had that not happenned it is very likely Larry Bird would have become Celtics GM. That would have meant no Pitino era. No Pitino era would mean no Antoine Walker thus no Reaf LaFrentz. No Danny Ainge. No Jefferson, No Gerald Green, No Rajon Rondo. No Blount for Wally for Ray Allen. No Raef for Theo for KG. And of course, no 2008 championship season.

So as you can see, wheels were put in motion for banner 17 with the signing of Dominique Wilkins in 1994.

Well you never know what wouldve happened but were champs so I wont argue with it

you make a good point. but you can play that game with alot of people. watch... take Shammond Williams for example. we traded Shammond Williams for Mark Blount. then traded Mark Blount/Ricky Davis for Wally/Kandi then traded Wally/#5 for Ray Allen. No Ray Allen trade = No KG trade. Those two trades dont go down no 17 title.

maybe 17 would have happened sooner then. who knows?

If you look back, I actually posted when we signed Dominique that "this will lead us back to the championship, if just will take 14 years"

Actually, I just remembered how much I didn't like this move, never really liked the Atlanta team and in particular couldn't stand their point guard, although I'm starting to like him now.

This thread is wack. By this logic we should thank everybody we traded. Lame

I think Jimmy Naismith is the real man to thank here.

I think Tony Battie deserves some credit.

Actually it was the 3-point circus by Obie-Moe.

It made many of us hate and rebel, which ruined all the fun for Thanks-Dad and so he sold.

The Celtics got the current ownership and a pretty consistent chain of good decisions followed.

We owe it all to OB.

we owe it to Ainge, Doc, Pierce, KG, Allen, and the rest of the team's players, the ownership ... We owe nothing to 'Nique unless he supported us as a fan (certainly possible since he was a Celtic and does have connections with this team). We certainly owe nothing to Pitino, OB, and the previous ownerships of the mid to late 90's and beginning of this decade. If we had Larry Bird or Larry Brown, the logical move instead of Pitino, the Celtics might be looking at championship #19 or better by now.

Banner 17, partially due to ..................... James Naismith.

EDIT:

Woops. Sorry BG, you beat me to it.