Report: Celtics came close to trading Paul Pierce for Chris Paul in '05

Paul Pierce's illustrious 15-year tenure with the Boston Celtics apparently nearly came to an end after just seven seasons.

Back on the night of the 2005 NBA draft, Celtics general manager Danny Ainge and fellow front-office executive Daryl Morey - now GM of the Houston Rockets - were apparently so determined to land Chris Paul's draft rights, they were willing to trade away Pierce to do so, ESPN's Jackie MacMullan revealed on "The Lowe Post" podcast Wednesday.

MacMullan, who was then with The Boston Globe, admitted that the newspaper was even prepared for the potential blockbuster trade with a pair of different ads that would have run depending on how the Celtics' draft night went.

"This is how close it was," MacMullan said, courtesy of Boston.com's Nik DeCosta-Klipa. "I worked at The Boston Globe then. There were two ads set to run in the morning edition of The Boston Globe.

"One was 'Follow the Celtics and Paul Pierce going forward' and the other one was 'A new era beginning’ and a picture of Chris Paul. They had two ads ready to go."

Obviously, the Celtics didn't end up trading away Pierce, and the small forward went on to play another eight seasons for Boston before they did finally trade him to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013. That, however, didn't stop the Celtics in their chase for Chris Paul, as Ray Allen reveals in his book then-Celtics coach Doc Rivers nixed a deal for Paul that would have sent Rajon Rondo to the New Orleans Hornets (now the Pelicans) in 2011.