The Boston Celtics had a busy first night of free agency.
Kyrie Irving teamed up with Kevin Durant and joined the Brooklyn Nets, while Al Horford agreed to a four-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. Of course, Boston brought in Kemba Walker to fill the backcourt void, but the flurry of activity right at 6 p.m. ET reportedly was the result of some early negotiating.
“Al was never coming back to Boston – they had a deal done two weeks ago,” a league source told Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald.
According to the source, the package deal of Irving and Durant heading to Brooklyn was done “months ago.”
No, it’s not breaking news that tampering does, in fact, occur around the NBA, but this certainly changes the narrative of Boston making a strong push to keep Horford in the hours leading up to the opening of free agency. There were rumors of a sign-and-trade deal that would have opened the door for the veteran big man to return to the Celtics, but it appears that was all staged.
The Celtics did find a big man on Monday, agreeing to a two-year deal with free agent center Enes Kanter.
