Boston Herald PITTSBURGH ? The last time Paul Pierce ran into the Cavaliers in the preseason he wound up $15,000 lighter in the wallet. But such costly animosity had cooled before the Celtics opened their exhibition slate against Cleveland here last night. ``That's in the past, and that's where it's staying,'' Pierce said before the Celtics fell, 96-86. It's quite understandable that Pierce would want to distance himself from the events of last Oct. 25 in Columbus, Ohio, when he shouted at LeBron James ? ``You ain't (expletive)'' ? when the latter stole the ball and dunked in what had become a lopsided mano-a-mano. Pierce got the aforementioned fine from the NBA for spitting at the Cleveland bench, which was celebrating James' exploits. Later the squads had to be separated in the hallway by their dressing rooms. The issues continued into the season with more jostling and barking, but they were preaching peace in Pittsburgh last night. ``Oh, no, me and him ain't got no friction,'' Pierce said of James. ``Me and LeBron are cool. We talked at the All-Star break. There wasn't any negative vibe from that or even from (Jeff) McInnis when we had that thing with them from the season. We squashed all that. ``We just went up to each other and said, `There ain't nothing meant from that last preseason game,' and we just left it there.'' The behavioral breakdown in Columbus turned out to be a harbinger of bad tidings. ``For both teams,'' Doc Rivers said. ``You think about it. Both teams had meltdowns all year. Cleveland had it to the 10th power, and we probably had it to the fifth power. ``I thought their meltdowns caused them to not make the playoffs, and then we had our own. I think both teams probably learned from that.'' Source
I didn't know that had happened lol, well guess I should pay better attention to my Celtics. I doubt Pierce even knew that 15,000 was gone though with his big contract and endorsements. Least him and Lebron resolved it.
