The Boston Celtics have not been the most prominent opponent in the new ESPN Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance”, but there have been a few interesting ties between that era of the Chicago Bulls and the Massachusetts franchise.
One resurfaced in a conversation between “The Jordan Rules” biographer of Sir Airness himself Sam Smith and Boston Globe veteran reporter Bob Ryan as the pair discussed a trade for Bulls forward Scottie Pippen that could have changed the history of the league — and very nearly went down.
Speaking on “The Ryan and Goodman Podcast”, Smith set the scene leading up to the aborted trade.
M.L. Carr had just passed the torch as general manager of the Celtics to prodigal son Rick Pitino, who took over as coach and G.M. in the summer of 1997 with two lottery picks gifted him from Carr and the miserable, 15-win season of 1996-97, the worst in Boston’s storied history.
“M.L. Carr loses every game that season so Boston could get Tim Duncan … they get three in the lottery,” Smith begins.
“So now Pitino comes in, he’s not coaching [whoever is taken with] No. 3 in the [lottery],” exclaimed Smith, “so he reaches out to the Bulls for [Scotty] Pippin. They should have made this deal!”
Originally reported in the New York Times that summer, McGrady himself actually brought this deal up himself appearing on ESPN’s “The Jump”.
Tracy McGrady: The Bulls tried to trade Scottie Pippen for me on draft night, but Michael Jordan vetoed the deal pic.twitter.com/eWYgMok0aZ
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) June 23, 2016
“What a lot of people don’t know about that night is that Jerry Krause was actually trying to make a trade for me and Scottie Pippen, and MJ called and axed that whole deal,” related the Hall of Famer on how he was nearly a Bull.
RELATED: Ex-Celtic Dana Barros shares how he was almost drafted by the Bulls
“They would have had [Tracy] McGrady, who again [was] a small college guy that Jerry [Reinsdorf] had found [who he] was pursuing for years,” continued Smith.
“They would have also had three [and] six with the Boston picks and a veteran; I don’t know which veteran it was. So, were they to get that, they probably win the next season with with that plus [Dennis] Rodman, [Michael] Jordan and the team they had. And then they get McGrady going forward, then they don’t have to go back to the bottom like they did.”
“But Reinsdorf even though Jerry [Krause] kind of greased the deal with Boston, Reinsdorf says, ‘No, we have a chance to win next season we’re going to keep it together,'” finished the Jordan biographer.
“So, he — like all owners — he’s got the last veto,” related Smith.
Dennis Rodman invited Dave Cowens on a road trip, and it ended badly https://t.co/3qygGENoua via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) May 3, 2020
It’s hard to say whether such a move would have worked out for the Celtics; in a roundabout way, contracts added to the roster through dealing the players Boston would draft No. 3 and 6 (Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer) would bring back some of the players dealt to assemble the Banner 17 team.
Pippen was past his prime, but still a good player — would adding his name have provided enough wins to take the pressure off Pitino?
The world will never know, but in a time without basketball, at least it gives us something to ponder.
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