Did the Boston Celtics miss out on an opportunity to land one of the NBA’s top executives? At least one prominent NBA analyst believes this could be the case.
Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix thinks that if the Celtics had reached out to current Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti that they could have poached the Thunder exec. While it is not clear from public statements whether Boston did indeed do their due diligence with regards to discerning whether Presti might indeed be available and disposed to decamping to the Celtics, recent comments on local sports radio by lead Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck appear to suggest they did not.
“I believe unequivocally that if the Celtics made an offer to Sam Presti he would have taken it,” shared Mannix on a recent episode of the Bill Simmons podcast via SI.com’s Ryan Chapman.
“I think that the Celtics are Sam Presti’s dream job,” he added. Presti is a native of Cambridge and attended local Emerson College.
“This is a guy that still brings his family — I think his father still lives in New England, he brings his family back in the summer, goes to Fenway Park! There’s a connection between Boston and Sam Presti … And I think that if the Celtics had just had a little patience and kicked the tires on Sam Presti they would have liked what they heard back.”
“There’s no better time to leave Oklahoma City than right now. Like you took them almost to the mountaintop. You’ve built an incredible small market success story, and while they are down now, the cupboards not bare,” he added. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1411686299069788160?s=20
Would this have been the right move for an organization that values continuity as Boston does? It’s likely too early to judge new team president Brad Stevens in comparison to the robust record Presti has created as head honcho of the Thunder organization. But Stevens seems to be off to a solid start, and there’s no indication Presti would in fact be disposed to moving on from the success he’s built almost from scratch with Oklahoma City. And at any rate, by now it is largely a moot point. This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook! [lawrence-related id=53307,53303,53252,53248] [listicle id=53315]
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