On this day in Boston Celtics history, the storied franchise traded champion point guard Rajon Rondo and center Dwight Powell to the Dallas Mavericks in 2014 in exchange for small forward Jae Crowder, point guard Jameer Nelson, big man Brandan Wright, draft assets, and a $13 million trade exception.
The move finally brought to an end the last remaining player from the team’s 2008 NBA title tenure with the franchise, Rondo having been with the Celtics since the Phoenix Suns drafted him out of Kentucky with the 21st overall pick of the 2006 NBA draft and dealt him to Boston on draft night.
Powell was a more recent arrival, having come over in the deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers for Keith Bogans in September of that year.
Crowder would remain with the Celtics until August 2017 when he was traded to the Cavs with Isaiah Thomas, Ante Zizic, and draft assets for Kyrie Irving.
Nelson was dealt just under a month afterward for Nate Robinson and Wright to the Suns for draft assets a little over a year later.
It is also the date of a 4-point play by former Celtic floor general Isaiah Thomas, which he scored a year to the day of the Rondo trade in 2015.
The 5-foot-9 point guard did it in a 109-101 loss to the Atlanta Hawks and saw Thomas put up 29 points and 6 assists while going 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, that 4-point play included.
It is also the anniversary of the game in which Boston scored more assists than any other in its history, to the tune of 46 in a 137-117 blowout of the Mavericks in 1985.
Celtic shooting guard and current team president Danny Ainge led the team with 13 of those assists, while Boston legend Larry Bird chipped in another 10, and Dennis Johnson added another 7 for good measure to lead the team in that historic night for assists.
Finally, it is also the birthday of former Boston bog man Rich Johnson, born today in 1946.
An alum of Grambling State, Johnson was drafted by the Celtics in 1968 and played two seasons with the team before departing the league for the American Basketball Association (a competing league that later merged with the NBA).
Johnson would play one more game for Boston in his third and final season in the NBA and won a title with the Celtics in 1969 in a reserve role.
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