Damn it, Danny, why?

Late last night, the Boston Celtics traded Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Marcus Banks, Justin Reed and two second round draft picks to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi, Dwayne Jones and a future first round draft pick. You can read the particulars of the trade here.

Let me come out and say it: this deal absolutely sucks. When I first heard it, I thought it sucked, but was comforted by the notion that Wally Szczerbiak was on the last year of his contract, and would be let go at the end of the season. Boy, was I wrong. Wally is owed $38 million dollars over the next three seasons. Basically, this deal boiled down to sacrificing Ricky Davis for a gawky white ballhog who can't play defense. Nora had it right in her evaluation of Celtics team president Danny Ainge:

"... most of Danny Ainge's other early trades, which seemed mostly designed to switch out talented black men for gawky white men"

She hit the nail on the head, there. Ricky Davis brought talent, passion, and (most importantly for Nora, I know) love. He loved being here after being traded to Boston from Cleveland. He loved people getting to know the real Ricky Davis, especially after his image around the league was often compared, unfavorably, to a venereal disease. Now he's gone to Minnesota. I hate this deal. Interestingly enough, however, Boston and Minnesota are slated to play each other, in Minnesota, on Monday night. As all the new players have to travel to their respective new cities, take (and pass) a physical exam, they probably won't play for their new teams until Monday. It promises to be explosive, if only emotionally.

I'll miss Mark Blount, Marcus Banks and Justin Reed, but losing Ricky Davis for such a marginal talent makes me feel the way I did when the Celtics traded Antoine Walker to the Dallas Mavericks for Raef LaFrentz: terrible. Will nobody stop Danny Ainge's reign of terror?

POSTSCRIPT:

The Boston Herald released this statement from Ricky Davis to Celtics fans:

"I love Boston. It's a great place. Thank you to the Celtics organization and to the fans for accepting me while I was here. I'm going to miss my teammates. This is the BEST group of teammates I have EVER played with. This has been a great step in my career, and I thank everyone."

Somewhere, I think I hear Nora weeping ...