Celtics welcome Kevin Durant, ‘rock star’ Warriors to the Garden

In the late 1990s, whenever Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls would come to the then-FleetCenter – there would be a saying. “The rock stars are in town.”

It happened again in the early portion of this decade when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat came to town to play the Celtics – but this year’s Golden State Warriors are on another level. On the heels of the greatest regular season ever, the Warriors added Kevin Durant, widely regarded as a top three player in the league. And they’re in town for the only time this season on Friday to take on the Celtics (8 p.m., CSNNE).

The Celtics, of course, tried to court Durant this past offseason – even bringing in Tom Brady to help do some recruiting in the Hamptons over Fourth of July weekend. Durant at least said he seriously thought about becoming a Celtic, but in the end that did not happen.

Celtic Jae Crowder was most outspoken about Durant turning down the Celtics, as he said the team revealed their “secrets” to Durant on how they were able to beat Golden State and the Cleveland Cavaliers on their respective home floors last season.

“We [expletive] told him everything we do to beat these guys, and we beat them, and he went and joined them,” Crowder told MassLive.com this past summer. “I felt like afterward, I was talking to Isaiah [Thomas], like maybe after you sit back, you shouldn’t have told him everything, but who the [expletive] thought he was going to Golden State, realistically?”

Golden State enters the game with a 9-2 record while the Celtics are 6-5 on the young season.