Post by FLCeltsFan on Mar 10, 2006 13:19:51 GMT -5
Great article by Simmons on Pierce. Long but a great read:
sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060310
I agree that this is the most likeable team for a long long time. I am excited about this group and about our future. I hope Danny gets that extension ironed out with Pierce and that we take this team to the next step. It is only going to get better next year!!!
Just a few exerpts:
Faced with the potential of the fifth Rebuilding Era in 15 years, stuck with an unlikeable nucleus, an overmatched coach and an unhappy superstar that nobody liked, your typical Celtics fan approached this season with the same expression of a whipped boyfriend heading into a chick flick. And then Pierce showed up with a smile on his face, kept saying all the right things, kept giving everything he had. Around December, I started getting e-mails from season-ticket holders who just wanted to tell me, "I don't care that we're blowing close games, it's been worth the money just to watch Pierce every night." When the Internet started buzzing with rumors that he would be traded, Pierce came out and said, unequivocally, that he didn't want to leave, that he wanted to retire as a Celtic. And he kept on killing himself and carrying his team, night after night.
For the past five weeks, he's been the best player in the league. Nobody has played at a higher level, nobody has made basketball seem so easy, and nobody has been saddled with a worse supporting cast (not even Kobe). During an improbable 8-4 stretch over the past 12 games, Pierce practically pulled a Jimmy Chitwood playing alongside two veterans with bad knees (Wally Szczerbiak and Raef LaFrentz), two young starters with barely any experience (Delonte West and Ryan Gomes), two fringe youngsters who shouldn't be playing in an NBA nine-man rotation (Tony Allen and Orien Greene), one guy who shouldn't play basketball professionally for a living (Brian Scalabrine), one kid who was in high school last year (Gerald Green), and someone once described as "the human Ebola virus" (Michael Olowokandi). He's also saddled with a coach who has now played the Wizards three times this season without doubling Gilbert Arenas on Washington's final possession of those games, someone who had so much trouble sticking with a nine-man rotation that his general manager proactively sought a 4-for-2 trade to help him out. (Don't get me started.)
But that's been the beautiful thing about Pierce this season: He wants to be a Celtic. He wants to be in Boston when things turn around. He feels like this is his team, for better or worse, that it's his personal responsibility to lead them. For nine straight months, he never said anything otherwise. When they needed him so desperately these last few weeks, he raised his game a notch; now it's reached the point where everyone expects him to come through in close games, where it's surprising when he doesn't come through. You can't attain a higher level as a basketball player.
What does this mean for the Celtics? They're becoming relevant in Boston again. That's the short-term effect. Between Pierce's outrageous play and the emergence of Gomes and West -- two of the most likable youngsters in the league, pure basketball players who never stop plugging away -- there hasn't been a Celtics team this endearing since Reggie Lewis' last season in '93. Whether they miraculously sneak into the playoffs or not, Ainge's rebuilding plan will be shelved this summer, and only because you can't waste Pierce's prime when he's playing this well. That's the long-term effect: With a boatload of draft picks and two appealing young talents (Jefferson and Green), Ainge has enough assets to overpay for an All-Star -- whether it's KG, Jermaine O'Neal, Chris Bosh or whoever -- then compete with Pierce, Delonte, Gomes, Perk, Wally, All-Star X, Free Agent Signing X and whatever assets remain after that trade. If he decides on proceeding in any other direction, he's a moron. And I don't think Danny Ainge is a moron. Even if he is the same guy who paid $15 million for Brian Scalabrine. Either way, Paul Pierce singlehandedly saved competitive basketball in Boston for this season and the next two.
For the most part, it sucks to be a sports fan. It's a one-way street. Tickets cost too much. Jerseys cost too much. Executives and owners screw up our teams. Players let us down again and again. Just this week, the top sports stories were the shocking revelations from the Bonds/steroids scandal, the NFL labor agreement, and Kirby Puckett's untimely death (as well as the obligatory number of "Just remember, he was a bad guy after he played!" stories). It's a culture where bottomfeeders like Jose Canseco never seem to go away, where entire TV shows are built around sportswriters screaming at one another, where an abject failure of a human being like Bill Romanowski can crack the New York Times Bestseller list. Everything is out of whack. Even in the NBA, an egocentric gunner like Kobe Bryant receives 10 times as much attention as the great Tim Duncan, who's currently limping around on one leg because that's what champions do. I don't know what's happened to sports. I really don't.
And out of this abyss comes Paul Pierce. Playing out of his mind. Saying all the right things. Coming through in the clutch. Doing everything with a smile on his face. He's going to retire as a Celtic some day ... and only because he wouldn't accept anything less. Sounds like the makings of a fantastic "Sports Century and Beyond" show some day. In the meantime, in the words of Roddy Piper, Pierce will continue to chew gum and kick !!!GREENIAC!!! -- Milwaukee you're next -- and Celtics fans will keep watching and caring and hoping and marveling at what happened here. That's the great thing about sports: You never know.
sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060310
I agree that this is the most likeable team for a long long time. I am excited about this group and about our future. I hope Danny gets that extension ironed out with Pierce and that we take this team to the next step. It is only going to get better next year!!!
Just a few exerpts:
Faced with the potential of the fifth Rebuilding Era in 15 years, stuck with an unlikeable nucleus, an overmatched coach and an unhappy superstar that nobody liked, your typical Celtics fan approached this season with the same expression of a whipped boyfriend heading into a chick flick. And then Pierce showed up with a smile on his face, kept saying all the right things, kept giving everything he had. Around December, I started getting e-mails from season-ticket holders who just wanted to tell me, "I don't care that we're blowing close games, it's been worth the money just to watch Pierce every night." When the Internet started buzzing with rumors that he would be traded, Pierce came out and said, unequivocally, that he didn't want to leave, that he wanted to retire as a Celtic. And he kept on killing himself and carrying his team, night after night.
For the past five weeks, he's been the best player in the league. Nobody has played at a higher level, nobody has made basketball seem so easy, and nobody has been saddled with a worse supporting cast (not even Kobe). During an improbable 8-4 stretch over the past 12 games, Pierce practically pulled a Jimmy Chitwood playing alongside two veterans with bad knees (Wally Szczerbiak and Raef LaFrentz), two young starters with barely any experience (Delonte West and Ryan Gomes), two fringe youngsters who shouldn't be playing in an NBA nine-man rotation (Tony Allen and Orien Greene), one guy who shouldn't play basketball professionally for a living (Brian Scalabrine), one kid who was in high school last year (Gerald Green), and someone once described as "the human Ebola virus" (Michael Olowokandi). He's also saddled with a coach who has now played the Wizards three times this season without doubling Gilbert Arenas on Washington's final possession of those games, someone who had so much trouble sticking with a nine-man rotation that his general manager proactively sought a 4-for-2 trade to help him out. (Don't get me started.)
But that's been the beautiful thing about Pierce this season: He wants to be a Celtic. He wants to be in Boston when things turn around. He feels like this is his team, for better or worse, that it's his personal responsibility to lead them. For nine straight months, he never said anything otherwise. When they needed him so desperately these last few weeks, he raised his game a notch; now it's reached the point where everyone expects him to come through in close games, where it's surprising when he doesn't come through. You can't attain a higher level as a basketball player.
What does this mean for the Celtics? They're becoming relevant in Boston again. That's the short-term effect. Between Pierce's outrageous play and the emergence of Gomes and West -- two of the most likable youngsters in the league, pure basketball players who never stop plugging away -- there hasn't been a Celtics team this endearing since Reggie Lewis' last season in '93. Whether they miraculously sneak into the playoffs or not, Ainge's rebuilding plan will be shelved this summer, and only because you can't waste Pierce's prime when he's playing this well. That's the long-term effect: With a boatload of draft picks and two appealing young talents (Jefferson and Green), Ainge has enough assets to overpay for an All-Star -- whether it's KG, Jermaine O'Neal, Chris Bosh or whoever -- then compete with Pierce, Delonte, Gomes, Perk, Wally, All-Star X, Free Agent Signing X and whatever assets remain after that trade. If he decides on proceeding in any other direction, he's a moron. And I don't think Danny Ainge is a moron. Even if he is the same guy who paid $15 million for Brian Scalabrine. Either way, Paul Pierce singlehandedly saved competitive basketball in Boston for this season and the next two.
For the most part, it sucks to be a sports fan. It's a one-way street. Tickets cost too much. Jerseys cost too much. Executives and owners screw up our teams. Players let us down again and again. Just this week, the top sports stories were the shocking revelations from the Bonds/steroids scandal, the NFL labor agreement, and Kirby Puckett's untimely death (as well as the obligatory number of "Just remember, he was a bad guy after he played!" stories). It's a culture where bottomfeeders like Jose Canseco never seem to go away, where entire TV shows are built around sportswriters screaming at one another, where an abject failure of a human being like Bill Romanowski can crack the New York Times Bestseller list. Everything is out of whack. Even in the NBA, an egocentric gunner like Kobe Bryant receives 10 times as much attention as the great Tim Duncan, who's currently limping around on one leg because that's what champions do. I don't know what's happened to sports. I really don't.
And out of this abyss comes Paul Pierce. Playing out of his mind. Saying all the right things. Coming through in the clutch. Doing everything with a smile on his face. He's going to retire as a Celtic some day ... and only because he wouldn't accept anything less. Sounds like the makings of a fantastic "Sports Century and Beyond" show some day. In the meantime, in the words of Roddy Piper, Pierce will continue to chew gum and kick !!!GREENIAC!!! -- Milwaukee you're next -- and Celtics fans will keep watching and caring and hoping and marveling at what happened here. That's the great thing about sports: You never know.