East coast meets West

They are two teams on opposite coasts, but they faced the same problem: getting back to their championship form. At the end of the 2006-07 season, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers had general managers on the hot seat. Celtics GM Danny Ainge was on the hot seat along with coach Doc Rivers after a miserable 24-58 season. That record landed Boston in the bottom of the Atlantic Division and included a franchise-record 18-game losing streak.

The Celtics would hope to land either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant in the NBA draft with possibly a top-two pick. But the Celtics' luck ran out, and they landed the No. 5 overall pick of the '07 draft. It was beginning to look like 1997 all over again, when they failed to land the top pick (and missed out on Tim Duncan).

But then it happened. Early in the first round, a trade was announced between Boston and Seattle that would change the landscape of the Eastern Conference. The Celtics would receive All-Star guard Ray Allen and the 35th overall pick (Glen Davis) in exchange for Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West and Jeff Green (fifth overall pick).

But the Celtics weren't done. About a month later, another general manager on the hot seat (Minnesota's Kevin McHale) decided to ship the best player in franchise history (Kevin Garnett) to Beantown for five players and two draft picks, with the most notable being Al Jefferson. McHale unloaded his superstar to his former Celtics teammate, Ainge, and gave him the best assist of his career.

Over on the West Coast, disgruntled superstar Kobe Bryant was demanding several trades. First, it was the trade for Jason Kidd. Then it was a trade for Garnett or Jermaine O'Neal, and then for himself to be traded out of town.

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak was on the hot seat because if he dealt Bryant, he would have traded two of the biggest superstars in Lakers' history (Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant). Bryant demanded a trade publicly. On radio. On YouTube. Bryant also publicly berated his younger teammates (namely Andrew Bynum).

But none of those trades took place, and the Lakers began the season amidst some uncertainty.

But before the 2008 trade deadline, the Lakers pulled off the ultimate coup by landing All-Star forward Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie and Marc Gasol. The trade immediately made L.A. a contender in the Western conference as well as a legitimate title contender. After the injury to Bynum, the Lakers had a huge hole to fill, and Gasol fit the bill.