Courtney Lee angry at Brad Stevens over his playing time vs Wizards

Courtney Lee wanted to do more of this, so now he's mad

Don't worry though, guys, he's not going to ask for a trade.

Last year's much maligned and this year's much improved Boston Celtics guard, Courtney Lee, was not happy after today's loss to the Washington Wizards.

Not necessarily because the team lost, though I'm sure he was upset about that too. Speaking with reporters after the game, Lee was upset with the fact that he only played eight minutes in the game and was benched for the entire second half.

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE:

"Are you going to be consistent with what you do? If you're gonna stick to a time subbing pattern that you make before the game and not go off how the game's going? Or are you going to go off of how the game is going? I don't know."

Lee said he has talked with Stevens about the situation, but didn't sound overly optimistic that things will be resolved to his satisfaction.

"We talked," Lee acknowledged. "Of course it's always going to be everything said that I want to hear. But I mean, you see that's not the case when I'm out there."

It was the least amount of time Lee's been on the court all season. The only other time he came close to sitting on the bench so much was in a November 27th loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, in which Lee played close to nine and a half minutes.

So, why did it happen? Lee was not told by Stevens and he can't come up with an answer himself.

Blakely does make the point that maybe the benching didn't have anything to do with Lee at all.

Avery Bradley was having one hell of a game, he ended up leading the team with 26 points on 66.6% shooting. So, yeah, that's pretty phenomenal and a damn good reason to not sub him out for Lee.

Still, Lee doesn't completely buy that excuse.

"I give credit to Avery," Lee said. "He had it going. So it made sense to leave him in while he's going. But what I'm saying in the same sense, there were games when I had it going and I came out of the game."

Is this whining?

While we've heard Gerald Wallace call out his teammates before, this is the first time we've heard players openly criticize the "Coach of the Year candidate" Stevens.

Lee is not asking to be traded though, he says sounding like a man who wants to be traded.

"Nah. I been through worst (expletive) in life than basketball," he told CSNNE.com. "I don't give up on nothing that easy. It's never going to get to that point. No one man can make me want to walk away from a situation. Now if I get traded, I get traded. That's one thing. But I'll never ask for a trade."

Yikes.

Lee is likely frusrated with the team after his name was dangled in trade talks earlier this week, but that's not a good excuse for this. He is openly taking fire at his coach with these comments and it's not likely to be something taken lightly within the organization.

Lee says he's not trying to force a trade, but if these post-game pressers become a trend, it's going to be hard not to say that's exactly what he's doing.

On a lighter note, Lee did give all of his teammates Xbox Ones before the game, so maybe he's just a little bit butt-hurt that he got benched soon after that nice gesture.

Via: Jay King, @MrTripleDouble