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DAN SHAUGHNESSY

At long last, the Celtics gave us some fireworks

Kyrie Irving (right) is three years younger and 6 inches taller than Isaiah Thomas.matthew j. lee/globe staff

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At long last, fireworks.

I am all in on the Celtics’ acquisition of Kyrie Irving. I haven’t been this sold on a Boston sports transaction since the Red Sox signed free agent third baseman Pablo Sandoval for five years and $95 million.

OK, bad example. The Panda thing didn’t work out. And truthfully, Danny Ainge’s bold trade could blow up on him if the Brooklyn pick becomes Hakeem Olajuwon and Irving goes all Carl Everett on us.

But that’s not going to happen. The Celtics just picked up one of the best point guards in the NBA, the second-best player in the Eastern Conference, a 25-year-old Basketball Jones who scored 25 points per game last season and can lead Boston to the NBA Finals.

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Irving is worth the risk. For years we’ve been hooting on Ainge for hoarding picks and assembling “The Little Engine That Could.’’ Even last year, when they had the best record in the conference and reached the NBA’s Final Four, the Celtics were not that good. They couldn’t rebound. They lacked top talent and maturity. They simply didn’t have enough good players.

Now they have some of the pieces they need to be championship-driven. In the last two offseasons, Ainge has added Irving, Gordon Hayward, and Al Horford. Enough with the Jae Crowders and Amir Johnsons.

The Celtics are finally bridging the talent gap. They have an infusion of talent to win games while youngsters Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum mature into everyday players, maybe stars. And there’s still hope that the Lakers’ pick for next spring (owned by the Celtics) could be a top-five selection.

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Brad Stevens no longer has to win with the picket-fence play and a roster of average talent. Irving, Hayward, and Horford aren’t the second coming of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen, but the Celtics finally have some of the pieces needed to be taken seriously at playoff time.

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Before we go any further, a word about Isaiah Thomas. It was tough for Ainge to trade him. Bringing Thomas to Boston from Phoenix (thanks, Ryan McDonough, son of the late, great Willie) represents one of Ainge’s best trades.

But the Celtics absolutely got the max from Thomas last year. He will never be better than he was last year, and now he has a hip issue that may yet require surgery. He forever will be 5-9. He was a defensive liability and was never going to be worthy of a max contract, which he desperately wants.

Thomas is 3 years older and 6 inches shorter than Irving. He is now with his fourth NBA team at the age of 28. He told us himself that the NBA is a business and that anything can happen. Ainge knows this better than most — he was abruptly traded from the Celtics by Red Auerbach when he was in the prime of his career.

So now 11 of the 15 Celtics from 2016-17 are gone. Stevens has four new starters. This will be a test of his NBA coaching acumen.

There are a couple of red flags with Irving. We assume he’s kidding about the “earth is flat” stuff (Jurassic Carl’s insistence that there were no dinosaurs proved to be somewhat telling), but it is a little concerning that he wanted out of Cleveland and that he needs to be “The Man.’’ How does that wash with Stevens’s mantra of team-above-self?

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Irving was the No. 1 pick in the entire draft in 2011. He is an NBA champ and an Olympic champ. He wants the ball at the end of the game. He hit the big shot to win the NBA title for the Cavaliers against the Warriors in 2016. He has been in the NBA Finals three straight years.

He will wear No. 11 for the Green. That’s a relief. Irving was No. 2 in Cleveland, but in Boston, that digit is retired in honor of Auerbach (team founder Walter Brown is No. 1). It would have been a Pitinoesque move for Irving to take Red down from the rafters.

No. 11 was recently worn by Big Baby Glen Davis and Evan Turner.

The big trade indicates that the Celtic bosses knew they were not close to an NBA title, despite clinching the best record in the conference and getting to the conference finals. It’s always nice when a franchise lives on Planet Reality.

It’s also a reminder that the High Renaissance of Boston sports is ongoing. No wonder fans in every other city are jealous. We have a football team that has won two of the last three Super Bowls and might go undefeated this season. We have a baseball team bound for first place and looking poised for a potential World Series run.

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And we have a basketball team with a glut of good young talent, flirting with the notion of getting back to the NBA Finals.

Kyrie Irving and the Celtics open their 2017-18 season in Cleveland Oct. 17, a week after the Red Sox and Indians are done with their American League Division Series and two days after the undefeated Patriots demolish the Jets in the Meadowlands.

Life is good.


Dan Shaughnessy can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com