On February 11th, the Cleveland Cavaliers will go to Boston to play the Celtics. It will be a battle of two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, and possibly a preview of the Conference Finals that will take place this coming summer. However, this night will be significant for another reason as well.
Paul Pierce played the first 15 seasons of his career with Boston, and was a crucial part of the team that won a championship in 2008. Therefore, on February 11th, the Celtics are going to retire his #34 jersey, as he will join 22 other former team members to be honored in such a way.
And just as a side note here, the fact that the Celtics have 22 numbers retired is amazing and shows how great a franchise they have been for so long.
But getting back to Pierce, he recently announced that he wanted the night to belong to him. The team had scheduled a video tribute to honor Isaiah Thomas' time as a Celtic since he now plays for Cleveland, but Pierce did not agree with the decision. Even though Thomas was a beloved figure in Boston during his time there, and even though he gave his heart and soul to the team in the playoffs just days after his sister was tragically killed in a car accident, Pierce seemingly doesn't care about that.
I have seen video tributes to players by teams before. They usually last at most about two minutes. Two minutes. That means that Pierce is unwilling to have to see a two minute video praising Isaiah Thomas' time with Boston. I have four words for Paul Pierce: Are you kidding me? Is he so egotistical that he can't have his special day interrupted for 120 seconds? I cannot believe that Pierce has a problem with this.
Does Pierce deserve to have his jersey retired? He absolutely does. Are there special honors that come with having your jersey retired? Yes, there are. But the fact that Pierce will somehow be offended by a short video tribute to Isaiah Thomas comes across to me as unbelievably narcissistic. Pierce will be honored by having his jersey retired that night. But does he know that something else will happen that night as well? Apparently not. There is also going to be a basketball game between two of the best teams in the NBA. Pierce's tribute is not going to be the only thing going that night, so I don't understand how he could believe that the night should be about him and nothing else.
The Cavaliers did visit Boston in early January, but Isaiah Thomas was injured and did not play in the game. Could they have played the video tribute then even though he was hurt? Yes, they could have, but they did not because he was not playing in the game. Could the team have scheduled Pierce's jersey retirement on a different night? Yes, they could have, however it isn't like Pierce is coming out of hiding from his retirement to make one last public appearance in Boston. Pierce is employed by ESPN and his face is on television all the time. People still see him and remember him as one of the great Boston Celtics, so the fact that Pierce is self-centered enough to demand the team not play a short video tribute to Thomas during what he believes should be "his night" is ridiculous.
I'm not sure how long Pierce's jersey retirement ceremony will last, but I'm about 99% sure it won't last 48 minutes. The game is going to last 48 minutes, unless Pierce wants to attempt to call that off and focus even more on himself. Jersey retirement ceremonies are special. I understand that. But in this case Paul Pierce comes off as so egotistical and selfish that it changes my perception of him.
God, forbid someone from stealing his spotlight for a few minutes. We might as well let Pierce play the game against Cleveland by himself with no one on the floor for the Cavaliers so we can watch an entire game of him winning one last time and taking all the glory for himself. For him to demand that the spotlight shine only on him is so selfish and absurd, and even though he obviously does not recognize that right now, I hope that some day eventually he does.
Daily Rangers Update: Nothing to report here as the team is off today. Tomorrow brings a game against Buffalo, who currently own the worst record in the Eastern Conference, so it should be a game that the Rangers win.
Daily Giants Update: Now that it seems "unofficially official" that Pat Shurmur is going to be the new head coach, the focus should shift to who he hires as his assistants. Steve Spagnuolo hired Shurmur as one of his assistants during his short term as the head coach of the Rams, so it is likely that Shurmur might return the favor here and keep Spagnuolo as the defensive coordinator. There were serious issues both on and off the field with the defense this past year, and I'm not sure how much Spagnuolo had to do with those, so this may or may not be a good thing.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: Nothing new here as well since Spring Training is still far away, but the San Francisco Giants just acquired Andrew McCutchen, so it seems like the NL West is going to be one of the toughest, if not the toughest division in all of baseball in 2018.
Daily NBA Update: Yesterday was a light night in terms of the number of games, but Anthony Davis was the standout with 45 points and 16 rebounds in a Pelicans win over the Celtics (I'm terribly sorry Mr. Pierce). There are 10 games tonight though, so it will be much busier during NBA talk shows tomorrow morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment