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My thoughts on TributeGate

Over the past month-and-a-half or so, one of the main off-court storylines dominating the NBA has been the increasingly silly drama over Isaiah Thomas’s Celtics tribute video and Paul Pierce’s number retirement ceremony. Here’s all that I know:

1. Paul Pierce, Isaiah Thomas, and Rajon Rondo are all Celtics legends. It’s a waste of time to compare or rank them — Pierce was the star of the team for well over a decade, Rondo won a title with Pierce in 2008 and was arguably the most exciting Celtic to ever watch not named Larry Bird, and Thomas led the team out of the post-Big 3 abyss almost single-handedly — but they all deserve respect as enormous historical figures for the NBA’s most decorated franchise.

2. Paul Pierce deserves to have a night completely dedicated to him. This obvious fact should have been established when the organization first announced that they would retire his number 34.

3. Isaiah Thomas deserves to have a tribute video played and a huge ovation to welcome him back to Boston, preferably on a night that he actually steps on the court. After the Cavaliers decided to activate him (on a minutes restriction) the game before they came to Boston, it was clear that he wouldn’t see any playing time against the Celtics as he slowly worked back from his hip injury. It’s fair for Thomas to want his tribute to happen on a night his family can come to the Garden and actually see him PLAY against his former team.

4. It’s up to the Celtics brass — and only them — to set all of this up. The players who are being honored shouldn’t be designing the schedule. I think this is where Danny Ainge went wrong with the whole debacle. Pierce says that Ainge felt guilty about how the Thomas/Kyrie Irving trade went down (you already know my thoughts on that), and that’s why he’s been so wishy-washy. That makes sense to me. Ainge shouldn’t have been leaving the decisions up to Pierce and Thomas in the first place.

5. As much as I love Paul Pierce, the way he has handled the controversy in the media has been completely childish. Almost every other day there’s a new quote from The Starters show with Pierce talking about this stupid controversy. A lot of this could have been avoided if he and Ainge worked it out privately, and not with everything being spilled to reporters. A lot of Pierce’s comments come off as disrespectful to Thomas. Thomas ended up looking like the most mature of those involved with his tweets yesterday afternoon:

This is in contrast to Pierce’s comments the same afternoon, which seem a little petty in comparison: "(Thomas) had a shot to be honored," Pierce said. "You came to Boston. Whether you are playing or not, you should have had your tribute then. I just don’t see how, if someone is having a jersey retirement, they’re going to be running other tributes for other players. "Danny tried to sell me on it, but I told him, ‘He had a shot, Danny, and he punked you on it. He pretty much dictated everything.’ They let it happen because they felt sorry how (the trade to Cleveland) went down. It’s guilt. That’s what it is." — ESPN 6. Rajon Rondo’s comments after his New Orleans squad’s victory over the Celtics last night are correct, in my opinion, but also a little misguided.


I totally agree with Rondo that the Celtics are not the type of organization that celebrates conference titles. But that’s not what this is about. Thomas is a player who overcame huge odds and immense personal hardship to lead the Celtics further than they had been since the Pierce/Rondo era. He’s the one who really re-established the winning culture in Boston, and helped bring stars Al Horford and Gordon Hayward along for the ride. I think that’s worth honoring, too.

With the news that the Celtics have decided to abandon plans to honor IT4 on PP34’s night, I’d hope that’s the end of this whole dumb saga. But who knows in the NBA, a league where pettiness reigns supreme.

Reposted from Medium

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