The Boston Celtics’ meeting with Kevin Durant on Saturday in the Hamptons was enough to leave their free agency competitors deflated.
It made perfect sense, then, that NFL star Tom Brady took part.
On Day 2 of the Durant sweepstakes, the New England Patriots quarterback joined a Beantown bunch that had quite a pitch ready for the biggest NBA free agent of them all: Not only do the Celtics want Durant to come to town and become a local legend like Brady himself, but they want him to do it while teaming up with newest Celtics star, Al Horford.
By luring Horford away from the Atlanta Hawks team that he’d played for since 2007, the Celtics have put themselves in about as good a position as possible to steal Durant away from the only pro franchise he has ever known. They’re still considered dark-horses, as almost everyone you talk to inside league circles still expects Durant to return to the Oklahoma City Thunder for at least one more season. But the Celtics, make no mistake, made all the right kind of noise in their biggest free agency moment.
No one but Durant truly knows what he’s thinking, of course, which means it’s armchair psychology time all around. But when considering this Boston meeting that clearly overshadowed the San Antonio Spurs visit that preceded it, it’s best to remember that Durant has always had a certain affinity for the Celtics organization. Or, at least, its most legendary player — Larry Bird.
When we sat down at the Thunder practice facility for a long interview in December 2012, Durant revealed how he had fashioned his game after Larry Legend. In the months that followed, his insight actually prompted a first-ever meeting between the two.
"Larry Bird is a guy I like watching," Durant said back then of the man who is now running the Indiana Pacers’ front office. "I watch film on him all the time. I like his approach to the game when he was playing. When I first started playing the game, my godfather Taras Brown — who taught me how to play — he always was a Larry Bird guy, always used to look up his stats.
"So of course as I got older and started to watch NBATV, legends games, and of course you hear the stories about the rivalries with him and the Lakers and him and Magic, so I like his competitiveness, how low-maintenance he was, how he just went out there and did his job. He played hard. He played for the love of the game, and that's what I've got."
None of which is to say that this is some sort of deciding factor. As Durant’s visit with the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday showed, optimism can be fleeting. Just hours after folks close to Durant were saying that he was "blown away" by the Clippers' presentation, they were unofficially waving the white flag in the Durant sweepstakes by coming to terms with role players like Austin Rivers.
Rest assured, the Clippers wouldn’t make such a move if they still thought they had a shot. With the Golden State Warriors still looming large after their Friday meeting and the Miami Heat and Thunder still set to meet with Durant on Sunday, he has much to consider.
But there’s a certain mystique that comes with the Celtics that is tough to ignore, not only because of the 17 championships but because of a fan base that — as Horford’s father was quick to share — makes its players feel even more passionate about this game.
As for the basketball optics of the current group, they won 48 games during the regular season with the diminutive Isaiah Thomas as their best player and now have the chance to be an elite team with Horford in tow. Adding Durant to the mix would put them on par with the recently-crowned champs, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Chances are, Durant still heads back to the Thunder and these conversations with the Celtics start up again a year from now when he hits the free-agent market again. Yet for now, regardless of the outcome, the Celtics did both their city and their storied franchise proud.
Follow Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick.
