Paul Pierce: no remorse?

Maybe he is, but the fact is none of us really knows what happened. It looked an awful lot like Pierce just stood there and smiled.

sure doc would throw him under the bus, he has a long history of talking poorly about his players to the press

Paul had better play than Q just by stepping on the court but i get your point. It should just make the fire inside him burn a little more and he should get that killer instinct to put points on the board. Kinda like how guys named Jordan, Bird, Wilkins would do it. But then again, sometimes when the antagonist is a player as bad as Q that is difficult to do.

Way to support your best offensive player Doc!

Did KC Jones not support Larry Bird every time he trash talked with Magic or Worthy? Did Tommy Heinsohn not support Dave Cowens when he went at it with Jabbar? Did Red throw Russell or Heinsohn “under the bus” when they got into it in their day? No, they supported their player. As a matter of fact I saw Red go after players that he felt treated his players wrong and I saw Heinsohn and KC and other Celtic coaches do the same.

This game had the potential of getting out of hand easily because of the way the Celtics humiliated NY in their last game and the ref’s had a responsibility to make sure that did not happen. The ref’s over reacted but justifiably so. Doc Rivers should not have commented on this situation at all in the press and Paul Pierce’s comments to the press were also not necessary. However, Doc has a need to speak when asked a question (God forbid he should disappoint his friends in the press). And Doc will not say anything to upset the league office either so he should have just said nothing.

No. Doc is right. I believe he is thinking that this would be OK if it was say, Lebron, Wade, Carter even but not when the guy the other team is of the QRich quality. This is a boneheaded move and the refs will not let something like that go. But when it is two superstars the refs are much more lenient in assessing T’s because they know that these guys (for the most part) can handle themselves.

If Paul was truly in the right here, do you really think his coach would be continually throwing him under the bus?

You are never truly right when you get ejected. Though I’d love to get something better than circumstantial evidence on this one.

First of all, put to bed the notion that Paul is a leader. Never was and never will be. He had the chance to be the leader as the team’s best player when Walker was traded and deferred to Payton….Then copied Payton’s laughable defense. Now he defers leadership to Ray and Kevin. Good choice by Paul
Paul is an incredibly talented player, but no leader. He should follow Garnett’s example. Garnett gets hammered repeatedly and rarely responds. If Richardson gets under his skin, imagine what Bowen could do.

Also, yet more solid judgement on parade by our brilliant coach.
Does it ever occur to Rivers that keeping his mouth shut would be prudent sometimes?

Paul was wrong, Doc is not throwing him under the bus, I see nothing wrong with Paul’s comments today. I think this is an important issue for the team, I think Doc will make sure they learn from it and the issue should be closed now. I’m sure there will be more technicals, but these are sometimes the fault of the officials. Even so, it’s an emotional game and T’s happen.

What disturbs me the most is Doc blaming the loss of the Indiana series on “composure”.

Uh, no. We lost that series because Doc was outcoached to the Nth degree by Rick Carlise.

Mike

wahz said:
  sure doc would throw him under the bus, he has a long history of talking poorly about his players to the press

This is almost totally untrue. The only time I ever heard Doc talk poorly about a player it was Mark Blount after Blount stated he should get more shots.

Paul has a “touch of LA” in his blood. I have to live with that (and do!)…at least he went to Kansas.

Paul Pierce is one of the toughest players in the NBA. He takes beatings on a nightly basis and has for years yet he continues improving as a player having arguably his best season. You don’t want your leader on the floor being a soft player with a personality to match. Paul Pierce is not soft, shouldn’t back down from challenges in a random regular season game. Kudos for him for standing up like a man.

Does it ever occur to Rivers that keeping his mouth shut would be prudent sometimes?

And defer to the bloggers maybe?

While I understand that Paul has to keep his composure, this has become a witchhunt. I don’t want to start a fight between myself and Roy, but I’m gonna ask you something, Roy. What if it was you in that game,things between you and Q-Rich get a lil’ bit testy, and you guys go at it? You may say your not bashing Paul, but I think you are. What about when we play the Spurs this year and Bruce Bowen and Ray Allen get into it? Don’t forget, they have history as well. HRB is right, Pierce shouldn’t back down from a challenge. Violence isn’t the answer, but sometimes you have to stand up for yourself.

Who cares if its a witch hunt? Who says it can’t be.

MikeDfromNP loves Rondo.
SexyScottish hates the refs.
Roy Hobbs has a problem with Pierce’s attitude.

In all three cases, the conclusions are drawn from a microcosm of the total information about the situation. However, all have made valid arguments to their point, with supporting examples and its very hard to argue against what they’ve said.

I’m a huge Pierce fan, but bottom line is that this article doesn’t appear on the front page today if Pierce doesn’t get thrown out 2 days before.

I’ll just be interested to see the blog’s and the media’s response if/when KG gets ejected for trash talking. It seems that the technicals he has drawn this year for jawing with opponents have been applauded as being passionate, energetic, and signs of being a great leader, whereas Pierce’s are immature, foolish, and oddly, signs of being a poor leader.

What irritates me most about this situation is that Doc has thrown Pierce under the bus for this, but at any point during any of the situation had the ability to put Pierce on the bench, but instead opted not to. If he was unhappy with what Pierce was doing on the floor, he should have acted before the referees did.

People are so hard on paul sometimes. They focus on the fact that he said he thought the refs over reacted and not on the fact that he said he “still needs to do better”. I watched the game, and the refs did overreact a bit. Paul did not deserve the second tech and Q did, but they decided it would be better to toss both players before the game got way out of hand. Which I don’t blame the refs for either.

I don’t expect Pierce to stay quiet when Q, who has already bad mouthed the C’s several times before this game, fouls him three times in a row and is continuing to talk trash. He should bark back a bit. The refs did what they had to do, but pierce did not deserve that second tech. You could clearly see that he had not lost his head and Q had by the way they both handled the ejection and left the floor.

I can’t imagine what people on this board would do if pierce ever got in a fight, which has never happend from what I can remember. Bird got in fights, mchale got in fights, parish got in fights, ainge got in fights, cowens got in fights, and these were during playoff games!

Forget about Doc throwing pierce under the bus, what about all the fans that constantly do it, even though PP has been here fighting for the C’s for so long.

Maybe it’s time to trade Paul to LA for Kobe. Paul is a greta player, but no leader. He has a history of losing his composure under pressure (and I mean pressure from average players and teams). What happens in an intense playoff series with an equally good or a better team then?

This Kobe for Paul trade ought to be seriously explored sooner rather than later.

HAHAHAHA!

This surprised me… even if Pierce did nothing wrong, being a professional sometimes means swallowing your pride and just saying “Sorry, it won’t happen again,” and then proving it. I really hope something like this doesn’t happen in the playoffs.

I read a story on some blog from a guy who (supposedly) saw the Big Three at a club in Toronto (I think) before a game this year. Apparently some random guy was chiding Pierce, and instead of shrugging it off Pierce started to get into it verbally and it looked like it could get physical, before KG stepped in and told Paul it wasn’t worth it and he couldn’t be doing stuff like that if they want to really contend this year. (Not sure how true this is, but not sure why a regular blogger would make it all up…. probably embellished though). Hopefully KG can be a good influence on Pierce in this way, although KG was blown up a couple times on the court too, albeit quite a while ago.

mcpu40… so you’ve annointed yourself the reasonable person on Celticsblog by dissign the thread and getting personal? Ha ha… Didn’t realize how little it takes to get your goat. LOL.

But seriously, where do you come off talking about what’s possible and what isn’t? How the heck do you know what L.A might or might not do? A year ago, was there anyone on Celticsblog who could have thought we’d have KG, Ray and PP playing together today?

The man’s got more stars next to his name than anyone else here.

Its not asinine for him to be able to voice his opinion.

You don’t have to agree with him. I don’t. But what he’s said is logical, accurate, and respectable, and I don’t see how it could be considered asinine.

Here’s a link to the story I mentioned:

http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2007/11/truth-about-truth.html

Again… not sure how true it was, especially coming secondhand from a guy who was admittedly drunk. But I tend to believe there was at least an incident, but it very well could’ve been nothing more than ‘TJ’ saying something while passing Pierce and Pierce saying something back, and that’s it…. who knows really?

Eh, sorry… here’s the link that you can click http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2007/11/truth-about-truth.html

Big Ticket, do you honestly believe that?

There was also something on BET the other day that said Pierce had credit problems.

Both insinuations are ridiculous.

quidinqui33 said
‘ll just be interested to see the blog’s and the media’s response if/when KG gets ejected for trash talking. It seems that the technicals he has drawn this year for jawing with opponents have been applauded as being passionate, energetic, and signs of being a great leader, whereas Pierce’s are immature, foolish, and oddly, signs of being a poor leader.]

I absolutely disagree with that logic. The whole point of standing up for yourself is to gain advantage, hence you push your opponent to the edge of the cliff, but never to the point of actually falling over the cliff. PP was previously cautioned, which if he had any sense, would be the signal that he’s on the egde of the cliff. The fact that KG can receive technicals but hasn’t been ejected shows that he knows how far he can go with his antics. Paul doesn’t. He doesn’t seem to grasp the difference.
 
“What irritates me most about this situation is that Doc has thrown Pierce under the bus for this, but at any point during any of the situation had the ability to put Pierce on the bench, but instead opted not to. If he was unhappy with what Pierce was doing on the floor, he should have acted before the referees did.”

Doc didn’t throw PP under any bus. Your reasoning only goes to support my assertion that PP is no leader and immatured to boot. PP is a professional with 10 years experience in the league. To therefore suggest that his coach should have acted (like what, taking him out of the game??) before the refs did serves to let PP off the hook. What if all 5 starters were misbehaving in a game? Does the coach sub them all? What if the bench palyers also misbehaved? Does the coach call off the game until they act right?

I think this is a bash of Paul. Why do I think this? Because KG trash talks EVERY GAME and noone complains, including the Knicks game. Even Doc mentioned that it was not just PP trash talking, it was KG, House and Perk as well. What about KG’s immature crab walk on the court during that Knicks game? How come you didn’t mentioned that, Roy? He set the tone for the game when he did that, imo, but only PP’s behavior is mentioned. Whatever, man. :-\…

totally agree on the garnett T’s. why is it that KG’ trash talking technicals are a sign of intensity and pierce’s are signs that he should be less intense?

the only diffrence here is the ref’s quick pulled the trigger. Ive seen worse trash talking then what was going on thier on a nightly basis.

If Paul did anything wrong, its not realizing that joey C throws people out on a moments notice. He tossed duncan for smiling at a horrid call last year for gods sake. How can any of you forget this quickly that Craford is a joke when it comes to calling T’s?

and yes, doc did throw pierce under the bus. the correct way to deal with it would be “we’ve talked about it internally, and its over” the immuture “im doing a super good job, pat me on the back!” way to do it is to say they above, then slip in that the player in question cost you a playoff series, i like how he just put that out thier for no reason.

Doc’s a player’s coach, but he tries to motivate by bringing things back up to needle guys. that should be done in the locker room, not in the media.

and lastley, villige idiot, why dont you get a clue how basketball trades work before you try to make arguments ok? not only would said deal have no way to work under the cap, it would;

A) destory the team chemisry of a team thats 33-6
B) not work under the cap, unless you included ray allens contract
C) wouldn’t be approved by kobe, since he ahs a no trade clause
D) stab one of the most loyal players in the nba in the back for doing the EXACT same kind of “never back down” attitude that kg brings every night.

the ONLY diffrence and why he got tossed was because joey “ill toss tim duncan out of here for smiling and challange him to a fist fight” crawford was calling the T’s.

honestly people, try to show SOME level of objectivity. This thread is people who hate pierce vs people who love him, and both sides are overreacting.

mcpu40 said:
“Not only would L.A. not do this trade, Village Idiot, but Bryant has a no trade clause which means he must agree to waive this for any trade to happen.”

And your point being…???? You may pass yourself off as a sports fan, but it’s clear your grasp of business is rather limited. FYI – any contract, no matter how ironclad, can be worked out if all parties are willing. Was KG’s contract not re-worked before he abors with the Celtics?

“Maybe he’d waive it because he’s a selfish player. In fact, I’d bet he would. But IMO Danny wouldn’t make the trade you suggest…and L.A. wouldn’t either. And to me, it’s a silly suggestion at best.”

Don’t pretend to know the unknowable. Again I ask you… aroudn this same time last year, could you have envisaged PP, Ray and KG playing on the Celtics, let alone a record of 33-6? Try not to project your limited worldview on everyone. It makes you look rather silly and weak minded.
 
“Paul is crucial to this team’s success, he’s been a warrior here his whole career.”
 
There is no denying Paul is a great player, but Kobe is better. The value of players should not be based on their tenure with the club, but rather on their ability to make the team successful. Paul had the team to himself for 10 years and didn’t win us anything much. So I don’t know how that translate int him being a WARRIOR. You can’t be a warrior if you keep losing your composure to 3rd teir players on bad teams.

“And what happend in the NY game 2-days ago has been blown WAY out of proportion here…both yesterday, and today.”

Are you kidding? Paul essentially traded himself for Q when it most counted. If I were Danny, I’d keep a close eye on PP before he derails this team in the playoffs with his is antics. What do you think Detroit would do with PP when they know he’s prone to taking the bait?

Like i said before…..They need to do this. If teams are going to attach we are not going to give an inch. what is a few ejections this early in the year anyways? You have to let the other team know that if you mess with the C’s your gonna get an ear full and a trip to the floor next time you come into the lane. This team needs to be more physical and really beat on people, otherwise they will do it to them and get away with it.

crownsy said:
“and lastley, villige idiot, why dont you get a clue how basketball trades work before you try to make arguments ok?”

Oh no, another basketball fan trying to make a business argument. Who should be getting the clue here… me or you?

“not only would said deal have no way to work under the cap…”

You’re right, but only if everything remains as is. As I’ve stated before, things can be reworked around of all parties want the trade.

“it would;
A) destory the team chemisry of a team thats 33-6”

Bogu argument. You are making the very same unknowable claim that many Celtics haters have been making since the trade for KG and Ray. They said team chemistry would be a problem, it hasn’t. These things cannot be predicted before hand. The current Celtics are proof of that, so why do you keep makign the same bogus argument over and over?

“B) not work under the cap, unless you included ray allens contract”

OK, you said earlier that “…said deal have no way to work under the cap”, but now you’re conceding that it could work with the inclusion of Ray’s contract. That just go to show that any contract and situation can be worked out if all parties are in agreement.
 
“C) wouldn’t be approved by kobe, since he ahs a no trade clause”

How do you know what Kobe would approve or not approve of? Did KG not initially diasprove of coming to Boston? But he’s here now, isn’t he? I wonder how that happened.
 
“D) stab one of the most loyal players in the nba in the back for doing the EXACT same kind of "never back down” attitude that kg brings every night."

Please don;t ever compare PP’s ‘falling over the cliff’ attitude with KG’s ‘pushing to the edge of the cliff’ attitude, they are simply not the same. Please check out the Portland game and witness how KG psychologically took the kids out of the game wihtout getting himself tossed. There are strategic thinkers and there are tactical thinkers. And it seems to me that KG is strategic in doing whatever he can to help his team win (that includes not gettong tossed), while PP is taking a tactical approach of showing that he doesn’t back down at ANY cost to the team.

Steve Weinman said:
“To that end, regarding the points made by mcpu40 and the Village Idiot, while I wouldn’t go so far as to call it an asinine idea that the Village Idiot proposes, I’m right with mcpu40 in regard to skepticism.”

Steve, I absolutely agree that all things being equal, one has to habor deep scketicism for such a trade. However my main point has been, and remains that such a treade can be done if the conditions were right. As of now, those conditions do not exist, but that doesn’t mean they won’t exist in the near future. Which is to say, the powers that be ought to keep that possbility alive and pounce as soon as that opportunity presents itself. I will check out the link you sent. Must make for some interesting reading… I’m out.

1)your intial moronic trade was paul pierce for kobe stright up, which would violate the leagues salary cap. I was simply pointing out that the only way to make it work would be to add the equivilent contract (allen’s or KG’s) to match kobes. its not THAT hard to understand.

2)also, the chemistry thing was never a vaild argument to me with GPA, since they are well known for wanting to win and not wanting to be the man at this point in thier careers. if PP gave a crap about fame, he would have said no thanks to the extension after thier second terriable, terrable year and gone to a winning big market club (the lakers reportedly thought he would be playing with kobe, and were shocked when he declared himself a celtic for life and resigned). also, they have played together before. Kobe drove shaq out of LA because he was and still is a child who needs to be number 1 at all times, he held the franchise hostage this summer and made a video where he destroys a 20 year old’s entire accomplsiments just to prove a point about his club not trading for j-kidd. sounds like an awesome locker room guy.

3)how do i know he wouldnt wave his no trade clause? well, unless he had a major change of heart, which is possable i suppose, over the summer he was holding the lakers hostage and let it be known he was considering trades to ONLY 2 teams, the suns and chicago.

4)why cant i compare the two’s intensity? because you love KG and dislike PP? that doesnt make my argument invalid, and you posted no actual argument for why thier not the same, other than “your dumb, Kg’s diffrent” thanks, awesome argument. and pierce, who “got himself tossed” has less T’s tis year than KG. I love both guys, but to think thier not similar in how they play on emotion is idiotic.

The thing that everyone is forgeting is they got tossed by JOEY CRAWFORD. this is a ref who tossed tim duncan, noted nice guy, out of a game for smiling, and challanged him to a fist fight. Why several of you have blindly asserted that “you don’t just get tossed because the ref feels like it” ill have no idea.

crownsy said:
“1)your intial moronic trade was paul pierce for kobe stright up, which would violate the leagues salary cap. I was simply pointing out that the only way to make it work would be to add the equivilent contract (allen’s or KG’s) to match kobes. its not THAT hard to understand.”

Oh please! I never said trade Kobe for Paul straight up! You just made that one up, and you know it since you alluded to Ray’s contract being included and still said it wasn’t possible for other reasons like Kobe not waiving his clause and team chemistry. Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Ha ha ha… Trix are for kids.

note that in no way am i saying that pierce is equivlent to KG, kg is a much more impactful player. but i gaurntee, if q-rich was on garnett, and garnett did his typical (and i love the guy for this) trash talking of him, joey C would have tossed him to. Q rich was probley ordered to go get technicals, isiah led the ENTIRE KNICKS TEAM in what appered to be a walk over to the celtics bench to get at eddie house.

The knicks are a joke, play extrmly dirty, just liek thier coach used to do, and today they got lucky that crawford is refing and likes to toss people out for nothign to prove he’s the man. oh well, we still won, since were much better than that trash NY calls a basketball team.

this is a non-issue, and to pretend otherwise is to truly be a village idiot.

Pierce has to try to stay in the game as he is a major
piece of the Cs puzzle. When he and someone from the other team gets tossed, the Cs will lose on the talent end more often than not. Memo to the Cs: run the court and play hard. If the other team is puffing it makes it harder to do any kind of talking, trash or otherwise.

Glad this was posted. Sadly, it is too late for Paul to “get it”. His ego is his biggest character flaw. KG yaps alot, but you don’t get the sense that he takes it personally, it is just gamesmanship. Ray truly seems puzzled by Paul’s “history” with QR. Pierce’s comments was the most disappointing thing that has occurred this season. Makes me feel that we are back in Indiana again. Truly sucks.

these players get to where they are because they are extremely competitive. they need someone around the to put things in perspective. while we know what doc says publicly, we do not know what is said behind closed doors. i liked what doc had to say to the press- it was not a condemnation of pp but a statement to the team and to us. let the scoreboard get back at the provaceteurs. what pp had to say does not bother me. he is a warrior and i don’t see him as a troublemaker. he gets into jams once in a while and he needs those around him to support and not encourage retaliation.red and tommy coached in another era and in today’s crazy world, doc’s words seem appropriate. i am not a fan of doc’s strategy at times, but he is a decent man and a good role model. and so is [paul.

mcpu40 said:
“I don’t have the time to address the points of Village Idiot except to say that I’m glad you are not Danny.”

How can you even try to adress my points after I exposed the flaws in your thinking? And boy am I also glad that you’re not Danny. If you were, we’d still be talking about Gerald Green’s potential.

“And you said it was easy to get MY goat? Sheesh. You have a lot of time on your hands pal, glad you don’t work for me. It’s a SILLY, SILLY, SILLY trade idea that will never ever happen. Period.”

I rest my case… look at your own words… that’s how easy it is to get your goat. :) By the way, I create jobs, I don’t apply for them. That’s why I get a kick out of posts like yours that are so bereft of any business thinking.

“Thanks Steve for backing me up.”

Steve didn’t back you up. Did you read the link he sent where he practically makes the very same argument as I did for a Paul Kobe trade. You gotta let your ideas stand on their own two feet, regardless of whether others agree with you or not.

“It’d be like trading Tom Brady for Tony Romo…Kobe being Tom, Tony being Paul Pierce.”

That statement once again shows how bereft you are of any business acumen. Form your own logic, why wouldn’t you make a deal that includes swapping Brady for Romo? I’d explore that deal in a Boston minute if the opprotunity presented itself. It is sad to to say, but a lot of sports fans are clueless about business… They said Belichik was crazy for starting Brady over Bledsoe, Jefferson and Green as part of a KG trade was poopeed up the ying yang. But here is the kicker… I went to the link Steve sent and read the whole thing including the comments section, and what did I see… our own mcpu40 said the following things:

“YES. If Ainge was called and offered Kobe (and necessary parts) for #34 & #20, he’d have to listen.”

“Plus, Kobe IS an unbelievable talent. Supremely gifted, Kobe Bryant is just about the only player in the league you’d have to at least entertain the thought of adding him to your team. Otherwise, you’d be foolish.”

Now the same mcpu40 is arguing the very opposite! Typical bandwagoner!!
http://www.celticsblog.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2046&Itemid=260

back to the pp situation. not to take him off the hook, but just to add. i don’t think it is an accident that the incident involves a thomas coached team. the indiana situation involving tinsley had an indirect zeke situation as he was tinsley’s coach for a while. i just can’t separate things from those detroit bad boys who were thugs and the nba allowed rodman, et.al. to play themselves up that way.

Steve Weinman said:
“Thanks for getting back to me. I see what you’re saying, and I think that while I see what mcpu40 is saying, we’re on the same page more than I initially realized as well the first time I read through the discussion. I would be curious to hear what you think if you get a chance to look at the Kobe-for-Pierce-and-Ray link I posted. Much thanks for taking the time to check it out.”

Steve, I read your post, and whoaa… you covered all the basis well. While I agree with your analysis 100%, I would slightly disagree with your point that such an opportunity would never present itself. I am equally enamored with the current Celtics roster as well.

Since we all pretty much agree that Kobe is an exceptional talent, I am making the business case that we ought to actively seek and/or create such an opportunity rather than leave it to chance.

Sure there are some pitfalls with tradign for Kobe, team chemistry being one of them, but if we were to trade PP-Ray/Kobe, and Kobe turns out be a chemistry problem, we could within one or two seasons decide to cut ties with him while getting tremendous value in return. After all, he’d still be in his prime, no more than a year or two older (I am guessing would compare much favorably with Ray and PP’s value, had this current Celtics experiment ran into simlarly chemistry problems – which, thankfully, it didn’t).

crownsy said:
“note that in no way am i saying that pierce is equivlent to KG, kg is a much more impactful player. but i gaurntee, if q-rich was on garnett, and garnett did his typical (and i love the guy for this) trash talking of him, joey C would have tossed him to. Q rich was probley ordered to go get technicals, isiah led the ENTIRE KNICKS TEAM in what appered to be a walk over to the celtics bench to get at eddie house.”

Your argument falls flat on it’s face since the refs were calling the fouls on Q. It would have been a matter of time before he woudl have fouled out. He baited PP into BOTH of them getting tossed. Not smart on PP’s part.

“The knicks are a joke, play extrmly dirty, just liek thier coach used to do, and today they got lucky that crawford is refing and likes to toss people out for nothign to prove he’s the man. oh well, we still won, since were much better than that trash NY calls a basketball team.”

I agree with you here. However, that only serves to drive home the point that PP becomes easily unglued under pressure. As I said, he essentially traded himself for Q (the guy had 4 fouls on him in 10 seconds?? – somebody please correct me if I’m wrong- before when they were tossed).

“this is a non-issue, and to pretend otherwise is to truly be a village idiot.”

It may be a non-issue for you, but it is an issue for others. Declaring something a non-issue and expecting everyone else to agree with you is a bit naive. It’s a free country… And yes, I am proudly and truly The Village Idiot. :)

mcpu40 said:
“What part of that statement doesn’t say ‘straight up’? You made no mention of other players.”

mpc40… you’re exposing your lack of sports knowledge here. My not making no mention of other players does not make it a straight up trade either. In any given trade proposal, we usually talk about the central pieces, not necessarily all the other pieces that would be involved. That, I thought, would be understood by the average sports fan. Then again, you may not be the average sports fan.

Steve Weinman said:
  Big Ticket,

Took a look at the link you dropped — thanks for passing it along. Here’s hoping it’s a sizable embellishment, because I’m certainly not encouraged by that particular anecdote…

-sw

Hey Steve… I tend to think it was embellished. Nonetheless, even before I started following the C’s a lot this year, I knew Pierce had a reputation as a guy that liked to go out to clubs. Now, I have absolutely no problem with that. Why sure he be restricted in his personal life? But, you still hate to hear of situations like the one I linked to because athletes will be thrown in the fire for that type of thing. They have to recognize that they’re famous and that these types of situations have to be avoided. I know sometimes there’s just no way to avoid it outside of staying home, but again, it’s just an unfortunate situation that forces these guys to be extra cautious when out in public.

]

Paul has grow up and if he wants a place in the rafters, then he has to conduct himself on and off the court. Paul comes across as this sweet, kind, basketball player.

We are finding out, just not in basketball but in many sports that today’s athletes are coddled and panpered way too much.

Doc understands this, he was a player himself and knows about the inner circle workings.

MATURITY….It won’t come till after Paul leaves the game and he’s not in the lime light anymore

Just look around us and how every Athlete (except Tom Brady and a couple of others) acts and conducts himself

Steve Weinman said:
I follow what you’re saying regarding pursuing a move, but I think part of my skepticism comes from the fact that I’m not sure either side would actively pursue what was discussed in the column. It’s that rare type of trade that I think both sides would have to consider if presented to them, but neither would be the first to start."
 
You have a point there. I do believe that such an opportunity did present itself a little while back, and we all assumed PP has matured. I hope that opportunity does present itself again though. Kobe on the Celtics is a fantasy of mine that may be far fetched, but hey, a man can dream, right? :)

Meanwhile, the Lakers have spent three-plus years building solely around Kobe as the man to lead them to another title (with help from Bynum and others, of course), and especially with him happy now, I don’t see them looking actively to shop him. If one side were to pursue the deal mentioned in the column (rather than a Paul-for-Kobe straight up, which I really could virtually never see the Lakers doing barring unforeseen catastrophes), then yes, I think it isn’t utterly out of the question that an agreement could be reached. It’s that initial pursuit that I don’t see coming from either side."

Hear, hear. The operative phrase in your post about Kobe is, “…and especially with him happy now”. Should Kobe become unhappy again, we ought to be front and center in pursuing him. I also think that teams can change their plans if things aren’t working out, regardless of whether they started off trying to build around a particular player.

“On a separate note, in fairness to mcpu40, I too read your original post as one meant to intimate either a straight-up or nearly straight-up trade, Village Idiot. Perhaps just a miscommunication between all three of us on that.”

I agree. In retrospect, I can see how my original statement can be misconstrued to mean it was a straight up trade proposal.

The media here in Boston has made a bigger deal than it really is, but that is their job. ESPN highlights didn’t even mention it on the website when i watched the highlights, yet this same topic has been posted on this site multiple times. If you really care that bad about it, maybe you should put a dress on, heard copley is a great place for that….

This is a non-issue. These guys were just trash talking, and we don’t know what Pierce was saying. Q could’ve simply started cursing the hell out of his mouth, and since Pierce was involved then they just gave a double tech. We simply don’t know what went on. And to put it in perspective, if there has been anyone on this team that has constantly almost come to blows in many games this season it has been KG. I don’t have anything against KG, but people need to put things into perspective.

mcpu40 said:
“You said Paul for Kobe, period.”

Fair enough. I’ll concede that point. My words are my words and I’ll take responsibility for my original lack of clarity.

“A couple questions:
1. How do you think #34 and #20 would feel if the Celtics did as you suggest: to actively seek and/or create an opportunity to trade them?”

How do you think Al Jefferson felt when he was traded? What about Ray being traded by the Sonics? Or KG by the TWolves? Why should this be any different? I mean this is a business, and the Celtics organization comes first before the player’s feelings.

“2. What do you think the national perception of our team and GM would be?”

I am not sure I get your point here? I suppose the national peerception of our team would be better than when we were tanking. I really don’t understand your point here.

“You can call me all kinds of things (as you have), question my intelligence (as you did), etc.. To me, that kind of posting is like driving around and giving someone the finger and then driving away.
Something I?d fathom you?ve done within the last week.”

Stop whining and playing the sympathy card. It was you who started throwing mud from the get go, and here you are whining? Pay close attention to my conversation with Steve… Do you see any insults? Maybe that’s because Steve accorded me the same respect I have accorded him. You on the other hand thought you could simply throw mud and get away with it. Figurativley speaking – I am comfortable brawling on the stret as I am in the boardroom. You may have bullied some people in the past with your insults, but I can assure you that I’ll give as good as I get.

“A ?bandwagoner?, as you?ve labeled me, is one thing I am absolutely not.”

It sure sounds like you are.

“Also, please consider spell checking your posts as they?re riddled with errors. For someone who ?creates? jobs and doesn?t ?apply for them? (as you?ve stated earlier) you certainly struggle with spelling.”

I hire people like you to spellcheck for me, so I can spend my time posting on Celticsblog (oh yeah, it’s the best blog out there) :)

“It really upsets me, Village Idiot, that you took the time to review Steve?s post from December, and then selected only a portion of my quote to drop in to your own post in an attempt to make it look like I would trade Paul Pierce.”

Sound like you get yourself upset over everything, which isn;t very surprising.

Now, I selected the relevant portions of your post which states clearly that if you were Danny, you’d consider the very same trade idea you called asinine when I posted it. It smacks of duplicity to say one thing at one time, then attack the same thing when said by someone else at a different time.

“Therefore, I feel compelled to REQUOTE exactly what I said that day, and it was this:
YES. If Ainge was called and offered Kobe (and necessary parts) for #34 & #20, he’d have to listen.”

Well, wouldn’t it equally be asinine of Ainge to even listen to such a trade if you thought it was asinine when I said proposed that very trade?

“How long the call would last would really depend on what those necessary parts were.”

Here again you show clearly that no less a person than Ainge would in fact entertain such a trade, depending on other components. How is that different from the case I’ve been making?

The rest of your comments were not relevant to my point, hence there was no need for me to react to those.

Finally, mcpu40… be nice to people if you want them to be nice to you.

I don’t see a problem with Paul said at all

I may have missed it in some of the posts, but would someone please explain to me how “Doc threw Pierce under the bus” on this one?

Wow. Pierce for Kobe? Uh, no.

In regards to the Indiana series, didn’t Tinsley flop when Pierce pushed him?

‘‘Teams like Detroit, the Spurs and Dallas have probably gone through this and have learned how to handle it,’’ Rivers said. ‘‘We’re still learning and we didn’t pass the test (Monday), clearly. And it wasn’t just Paul. I thought Paul was singled out. It was the team as a whole.’’

Damn, Roy. You got supporters and you got haters. I respect your point of view, but hey, Pierce is a warrior. You gotta fight.

Roy you are out of your mind, plain and simple. You cannot be a competitor and be a robot. You should never go around starting things on the court, but you should always finish them. Just like a coach gets tossed out of a game sometimes to fire up his team, well sometimes a player needs to do it as well. Pierce’s actions on Monday were not a lack of maturity, just an example of how much a competitor he is. He is not going to back down from anyone, and if Q Richardson wants to talk to him about it, and committ hard fouls, well Pierce isn’t going to just let it happen, nor should any player. Larry Bird wouldn’t allow that to happen, nor would Michael Jordan, enough said. Oh and Roy, if you are prepared to retire a guy’s jersey, it is kind of silly to talk about maturity. If you believe the guys jersey deserves being retired, then I think he’s past the maturity phase. Don’t cross your opinions, makes you look even worse.

you were expecting maturity from paul pierce? c’mon. he’s still the same hothead who had a meltdown in the pacers series. he’s a great player but his achilles heel is his inability to control his emotions when he has to. do you think he was really an innocent victim in that stabbing or did he say the wrong thing to the wrong guy?

The Same hot head who stuck around through the BS the past 4 years, who didn’t open his mouth and pull a Vince Carter?? Or the other Pierce who came back into the game when his teeth got knocked out…even tho the team sucked?