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December 01, 2004
The Truth Hurts
OK. Someone's gotta start writing fulltime on the Web about the Celtics, and since Simmons has become a Clippers fan, I'll get the ball rolling.
My Dad and I were walking out of the New Garden tonight after the C's' nailbiting 101-100 win over Milwaukee, talking basketball with Globe columnist Bob Ryan -- well, that's not exactly true. What happened is my Dad said, "Hey, Bob," and then Bob talked basketball to us all the way over to Government Center. I swear, the man didn't take one breath. We learned that Bob likes the uptempo pace of this year's Celtics, he thinks the rookies are going to be good (especially Delonte West, when he heals), and he likes having GP as a point guard. And a lot more. All in a five-minute walk. All in all, I think Bob was pretty gracious, considering we were literally two guys walking up to him in a dark alley.
But what dominated the conversation/monologue was Paul Pierce. Coach Doc Rivers sat him down with about 4 minutes to go in a razor-thin game. Paul, while everyone else on the Boston bench was leaning forward, was leaning back, arms across the tops of the folding chairs next to him, visibly sulking. Then the Bucks called a timeout and Payton and Rivers both started yelling at Paul. Really yelling. Then Paul goes into the game, hits a 3-pointer, and eventually the Celtics walk off victorious.
But something is clearly rotten here. Paul got benched and sulked last week against San Antonio, he sleepwalked through chunks of last year, he's visibly pissy almost all the time this year. It's not as bad as Vince Carter's "woe-is-me" act in Toronto, but it's going to have an effect on this season, and maybe a longterm effect on the kids, if the designated team superstar is turning into a courtside cancer.
While researching(!) this, I found an interesting column by Brendan McGovern on About.com. He suggests that Pierce needs a change of scenery (which is becoming more obvious by the day) and lists some potential destinations. I admit, I like that New Orleans idea.
It's funny (not ha-ha funny, but interesting) that three years ago, Paul and Antoine Walker got the team withing spittin' distance of the NBA Finals. Antoine got traded, and now he's in a low-pressure environment where he can shoot his heart out and no one cares. Maybe that's what's best for Paul, too. And it sucks. After the fading early-90s and the Godawful late-90s, we thought Paul was The Truth and would mean the end of the Celtics' rebuilding process.
But it looks like we have one more rebuilding process to go. And maybe it starts with trading our biggest and most recognizable star. Hey, it's worked before.
I probably would have told all this to Bob, if he had taken a breath.
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