And it only took eleven months

You know what's pretty remarkable? If Mitch Kupchak and Danny Ainge were fired in the offseason, the NBA would be looking at another Spurs-Pistons series, which would probably be the least-watched Finals of all time. And yet, Ainge and Kupchak pulled off the two best trades in the league, and the team's they work for are the Celtics and Lakers, the two most storied franchises in the NBA.

Who could have seen it coming? In November, Kobe Bryant appeared to be done in Los Angeles. He was booed when he stepped on the floor at the Staples Center, he didn't have enough around him, his team was mediocre. But then, Andrew Bynum blossomed into a star and Mitch Kupchak received Pau Gasol in a trade for Kwame Brown.

The Celtics were the second-worst team in the NBA. At one point, they lost 18 games in a row. In the offseason, Ainge swapped almost every Celtic who wasn't Paul Pierce and received Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Eddie House, James Posey, Scot Pollard, Glen Davis, P.J. Brown, and Sam Cassell jumped on board, and the C's won 66 games.

The Boston Celtics are a win away from giving the league it's best Finals matchup in the post-Jordan era. If and when they beat the Pistons, there'll be a lot of celebrating at the league's New York headquarters. If ABC can't pull massive ratings with these two teams...