Everyone laughed and ripped off jokes about Pierce’s Jan. 4 declaration that the Celtics shouldn’t briefly interrupt the night of his jersey retirement in Boston to honor Isaiah Thomas. But Pierce stuck to his guns. On Tuesday, we found out the Celtics will not show an Isaiah tribute video, instead focusing all attention on The Truth.

The Celtics had originally intended to show the Isaiah tribute video — a standard NBA laurel for All-Stars traded away — when the Cavaliers visited Boston on Jan. 3. That was derailed when Thomas — then just having made his season debut — asked them to delay the honor since he wouldn’t be playing that night and his family wouldn’t be in attendance.

One problem: The Cavaliers’ only other visit to Boston this regular season is Feb. 11, already lined up as the day the Celtics will retire Pierce’s jersey.

 

On ESPN’s The Jump, where he is a regular panelist, Pierce expressed displeasure with the idea that there might be a brief video of Isaiah highlights during one of the timeouts. The funniest claim in there was that Pierce, having witnessed Kobe Bryant’s jersey retirement recently, liked how the night was 100 percent Kobe, in every timeout. (Kobe, by the way, won five titles, an MVP, and two Finals MVPs with the Lakers. Pierce respectively earned one, zero, and one with Boston.)

 

Pierce told ESPN on Tuesday that he spoke with Celtics president Danny Ainge about the tribute foofaraw for 40 minutes (!), and reiterated that he didn’t want Isaiah’s video to play. The quote, straight from Pierce’s lips, is hilarious.

 

“Danny and I talked about it for 40 minutes,” Pierce explained to ESPN early Tuesday afternoon. “He told me, ‘This is what we have planned,’ and at the end of the conversation, he said, ‘If you don’t want us to do Isaiah, we won’t.’ So I told him, ‘I really don’t.’ So that was it.

“That’s how we left it.”

 

Pierce’s attitude is straight out of central casting for the villain role in a soft-feature teen movie about prom drama. Come on, Truth. This one-minute tribute to a dude who played through what Isaiah Thomas played through last spring is stealing too much spotlight from your Big Day?

 

This applies not just to Pierce — who should have no role but showing up and inviting guests — but to Isaiah, who asked the Celtics to delay their tribute to him, sparking the whole fuss.

 

Isaiah’s rationale was sound: He wanted his family there, and they weren’t going to be there because he wasn’t playing. But trying to micromanage little kindnesses given to you is bad form. Everyone needs to be way less involved in planning their own NBA tributes.

 

The related reality here is that you really can’t control these things. The tribute is choreographed; the sporting event is unscripted. (Remember the Chris Mullin fiasco in Oakland?) At this point, nothing would be sweeter than for Isaiah to hang a 50-spot on Boston and steal the spotlight, or for eternal Pierce foil LeBron James to stick a game-winner.

Paul Pierce is Carmelo Anthony with better PR and a little luck.

 

Like Melo, Pierce was a perennial All-Star whose teams were never quite good enough. Unlike Melo, Pierce received the gift of Kevin Garnett in lieu of forcing a trade when the run with the team that drafted him puttered out. That Garnett trade directly led to Pierce’s title and Finals MVP, and preempted a Pierce trade, which resulted in The Truth ending up high in the Celtics’ record books in terms of games, points, and other longevity-based stats.

 

Had Ainge not stolen Garnett from old bud and Timberwolves GM Kevin McHale in the summer of 2007, Pierce almost assuredly would have been traded before the end of the 2007-08 season. If that had happened, Pierce’s jersey wouldn’t be going up into the rafters.

 

Pierce was pretty good for a hella long time for one team, and that’s getting him a tribute night and jersey retirement. Melo has been pretty good for a hella long time for multiple teams, and odds are no franchise will retire his jersey. Part of that is Melo’s fault for pushing his way out of Denver.

Rajon Rondo, who accomplished far less in Boston than did Isaiah once his Hall of Fame teammates were traded, lambasted the idea of honoring Thomas at all. One wonders if Boston legends of yore with fists full of rings are equally dismissive of achievements of the ballyhooed revival team that hoisted just one trophy. Everything is relative.
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