<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The coach talked last week about Pierce needing ''to grow." By that, he meant mature. At 6 feet 7 inches, Pierce has done all his growing. Pierce resisted Rivers's system all season; there's no secret why he has a reputation for being a selfish player. But the Pierce behavioral thing is an ongoing story. You may recall that he was not the most popular player on the 2002 World Championship team in Indianapolis. (Must be something about that city.) It wasn't because he didn't play well. It's because of what happened off the court. One USA Basketball official called Pierce ''disruptive." The coach of that team, George Karl, wouldn't dispute that. ''I never got to know Paul as well as I would have liked," Karl said this past week. ''But when we got beat and were told to be humble and take our losses like warriors, he decided to jump out there and fight the negativity. And because I was the head man, I had to call him out on it. ''None of us wanted to play those last two games [after being eliminated from the medal round]. None of us wanted to watch film. But you've got to do that. And Paul just pushed the line, pushed the line. His reaction to the negativity, to a crisis, was that we all have to protect ourselves, our own egos." I don't know if Pierce can get past the Game 6 histrionics. I don't think he could have if the Celtics lost that game, and I won't be the least bit surprised if he's not back. It's a stunt that, unfortunately for him, has legs, especially the facial garb for the postgame news conference. As Rivers noted, if the guilty party doesn't feel like a complete nitwit after the fact, what is the coach supposed to tell all the impressionable kids who just saw the team captain go Ozzy Osbourne on everyone?</div> http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/ar...lean_up?mode=PF Peter May jumps on Pierce and Ricky. It's classic May with as much negativity as humanly possible. Take out all the obligatory shots he takes, and this is actually a decent article. He makes a lot of good points in this.
I like the article. The C's have a very talented young core. Having Pierce and Walker won't help them in any way. Kinda funny though, because it always seemed (to me at lest) that Ricky was the headcase on the team and the one who's going to be the distraction, but this season, Davis showed more matuarity than both Walker and Pierce. Ainge could get the most out of him if he trades him this summer. I don't think his stock will rise up to where it was couple of years ago.
