Brad Stevens put the phone down one final time on February 19th, 2015. In his second year as head coach, Danny Ainge told him the Celtics would make no moves again. It was 11:50 on the west coast, where the C’s would face the Kings that night. His team began arriving for a 12:15 team meeting that included then Celtics Tayshaun Prince and Marcus Thornton.
Within ten minutes, the faxes starting churning to beat the 3:00 p.m. deadline on the east coast. Ainge beat the buzzer and Prince and Thornton no longer played for Stevens.