When recruiting super star athletes, you’ll do anything to make them join your team. For Boston it was pulling out all the stops with Tom Brady and apparently, the super secret details of beating the Warriors and Cavaliers.
When Kevin Durant was seeking his next team, one of the six teams he had a meeting with was the Celtics. Most thought they would succeed in gaining Durant, especially Crowder, but to his dismay he chose the Warriors. Crowder spoke to MassLive about Durant’s decision.
“We were the only team in the NBA to beat [Cleveland and Golden State] on their home court. The only team in the NBA, the Boston Celtics,” Crowder told MassLive.com. “We told him that. We played him clips from both games and told him basically the scouting report of how we guarded Steph [Curry] and Klay [Thompson] — our entire game plan, basically. That’s what made me mad. We f—ing told him everything we do to beat these guys, and we beat them, and he went and joined them. Afterward, I was talking to Isaiah [Thomas], like maybe after you sit back, [we] shouldn’t have told him everything, but who the f— thought he was going to Golden State, realistically? It was like a slap in the face for us, basically.”
And honestly, who would’ve thought KD would choose the Warriors? Either way, both clubs are happy and Crowder likes the signing of AL Horford with the team still in great position to add additional pieces.
In recruitment, you win and lose some. All you can do is give your best pitch and hope that it’s enough to make a player sign.
