<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Which leads us to a rather parochial observation: What about Paul Pierce? Answer: Dennis Rodman and Rasheed Wallace will be on the team before Pierce. Ever since Pierce's performance on and off the court during the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, he has been basically persona non grata to US Basketball and the selection committee. He has never been under serious consideration for one of the Athens positions. As one official who was privy to what went on in Indianapolis put it recently, "He was disruptive." Another said, "2002 could not have helped." There were a lot of body-language issues on the court during games. There were issues off the court as well. And then there was an unseemly back-and-forth with coach George Karl after it all ended, which surely didn't help Pierce's situation. When you see the committee turn to players like James and Marion instead of Pierce, you have to think that it must have been pretty bad stuff that went on. You can probably put Baron Davis in the same boat as Pierce; he, too, was on that Indy team and didn't exactly endear himself to the powers that be. The team finished sixth.</div> Source
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">And then there was an unseemly back-and-forth with coach George Karl after it all ended, which surely didn't help Pierce's situation.</div> Pierce being the scape-goat, clearly explained in that one sentance. Karl and Boston just don't get along and given that Paul not nearly as likely to say something negative about someone in the public as Karl is, there's only going to be one POV portrayed. Karl has never in his professional career taken responsibility for his failures and I never expected him to. Paul Pierce is not a trouble maker. Not to mention that there were how many other stars on that team? No one said anything to him? Only Karl was the one bad mouthing him and most of the players did not blame Pierce for the team short-coming. That team's failure in the eyes of a shocked nation, had to have a scape-goat and the guys who tried hardest to avoid those loses, are the ones with the bulleyes on thier head. Personally, I'm glad that Pierce isn't playing. He needs to the time off and frankly, should be insulted at the fallout being foolishly directed at a singular player, for a team short-coming.
The Celtics office has always been corrupted as of late, always looking for scape-goats, this is no different than that loser Ainge. Karl is just being sore, he should respect someone as good as Pierce is, not to mention be sensitive of the fact though it's irrelevant to this topic, he might still be traumatised from his stabbing all those years ago. He should face the fact that the team was bound to fail this season. Not forgetting that it's not like it was going to be like the Magic or Sixers, one man teams just is never anyone's fault but their own.
