On this day in Boston Celtics history, the team traded fan-favorite All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas along with forward Jae Crowder and big man Ante Zizic to the Cleveland Cavaliers and draft assets for All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving in 2017.
“Kyrie is one of the best scorers in the NBA. He has proven that over the last three years on the biggest stage, the NBA Finals,” Celtics President Danny Ainge said in a press release at the time. “He was an NBA champion, an Olympic gold medalist and (at the time) a four-time All-Star,” Ainge added. “With everything he has accomplished, we believe his best years are still ahead of him.”
Thomas’ hip injury caused him to fail the fitness test, so he had to bring in other draft players later in the week to complete the trade. We all know how Irving’s tenure in Boston went, but at the time, the deal made sense, as painful as it was to part with Thomas.
On this day, former Celtics striker Jeff Green also signed a new four-year, $36 million contract with the team in 2012.
Green was selected by Boston as the fifth pick out of Georgetown in the 2007 NBA Draft and traded to the Seattle SuperSonics along with Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West in exchange for Ray Allen and Glen Davis.
The former Hoya returned to the team in 2011 in exchange for Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson, who later traded them to the current Oklahoma City Thunder (the franchise had since moved to Oklahoma) in exchange for Green and Nenad Krstić.
Green played a total of four seasons for the team, averaging 14.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game, until he was traded again, this time to the Memphis Grizzlies in a deal that brought back Tayshaun Prince and draft assets.
On this day in 1969, Boston also signed former Celtics center Hank Finkel, who was sent from the (then) San Diego (now Houston) Rockets.
Finkel played six seasons as a reserve player for Boston, winning a title with them in 1974 and averaging 4.6 points and 3.7 rebounds per game with the team.
It is the birthday of former Celtics center Harold Kottman, a graduate of Culver-Stockton College who was born on this day in 1922 in Forest Green, Missouri.
The former Boston star played 53 games with the Celtics in the inaugural season, scoring 3.1 points per game (rebounds not counted).
It is also the date of the death of former Boston forward Lou Tsioropoulos in 2015. Tsioropoulos, a Celtic player born in nearby Lynn, Massachusetts, played at the college level in Kentucky before being drafted by Boston in the 1953 NBA draft.
The former Wildcat spent some time in the U.S. Air Force before joining the team with which he would win two titles in 1957 and 1959.
On this day in 2008, the Celtics signed small forward Darius Miles as an unrestricted free agent.
However, the East St. Louis native never played for Boston and was released by the team the following October before the start of the regular season.
Eleven years earlier (1997), point guard Tyus Edney had signed a contract with the team and, unlike Miles, he stayed with the team long enough to play 52 games the following season.
The former UCLA star player averaged a productive 5.3 points, 1.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and one steal per game during his time with the team.
