The Boston Celtics disrespected Paul Pierce with the tribute video controversy
In a week of NBA scuffles and an Arron Afflalo fist fight, the Boston Celtics played middle-man in a war of words between former point guard, Isaiah Thomas, and retired Celtics legend, Paul Pierce.
As many of you know by now, there has been much debate over whether Thomas should receive a video tribute on “Paul Pierce” night in Boston on February 11th. The Celtics decided to grant Pierce’s request not to air a Thomas tribute video and my response is…what took so long?
The Celtics made the right call in the end, but the amount of time it took for them to reach their conclusion disrespectful to Pierce. “The Truth” played 15 seasons in Boston, carrying the team through both hard times and great triumphs.
He won the only championship in the post-Larry Bird era and is penciled in a few places in the Celtics’ record books. Pierce deserves a night to himself and asking him share it with another player diminishes how special it is to have your jersey raised to the rafters, especially with a franchise as rich in history as the Celtics.
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The issue is the publicity this feud received and Thomas’ inflated sense of his impact on Celtic’s history. Danny Ainge letting the media know about the request forced Pierce to have to publicly defend his career and his importance to the Celtics organization. The Celtics should not have made the request public nor let Pierce defend himself alone. The situation caused Pierce and Thomas to be at odds, each explaining why want a tribute in February. The feud also caused the media to compare the two players careers, which is unfair to both players. Simply, Pierce should not have had to address this publicly nor deal with this at all.
Second, Thomas’ inflated idea of his time in Boston only made the issue worse. Rajon Rondo was correct in mentioning the Celtics don’t celebrate conference finals when commenting on the situation. Fans loved Thomas as a player and a person, but with the strong winning tradition of the Celtics, there is no place for him to dictate when he gets his tribute given he lost in Eastern Conference Finals.
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Thomas played at a very high level during his time in Boston, but he took advantage of his return to the Garden on January 3rd. He might not have received his video tribute, but he did salute the crowd, hug most of the Celtics, and manage to have the camera on him a fair amount, even when he was warming up on the stationary bike halfway through the first quarter. That strikes me as a tribute and a player with his credentials does not deserve that tribute along with a video tribute on two different nights.