The Boston Celtics were one of the teams that met with Kevin Durant during his 2016 free agency in the Hamptons.

Durant met with the Boston contingent, which included Tom Brady, for four hours. The Celtics were offering a strong core of role players plus a number of future draft pick assets to put a title contender around Durant.

Many sources around the NBA have come to believe Durant would have signed with the Celtics had the Golden State Warriors won the Finals. For Durant, the optics of joining a team that had just won back-to-back championships may have been too difficult to overcome.

Even as Durant was finalizing his decision to join the Warriors, he asked Joe Lacob and Bob Myers how they would shield him from criticism should he decide to join their franchise.