Blow what up?

(Guest Post)
There is no stance in the Boston sports realm I can remember being as adamantly opposed to as the constant calls around Boston for the Celtics to “blow it up.” The sensationalist media in Boston is at its worst any time the Celtics hit a rough patch. Trade rumors and the urge for DA and the organization to “look towards the future” have become routine season to season.

And then every year, the Celtics turn it on at the end of the season, make a deep playoff run, and all those previously calling for the team’s immediate demise shut the fuck up. No bandwagon in Boston fluctuates as significantly over the course of the season as the Celtic’s. In the least surprising media reaction of all time; following the injury to Rondo, the blow it up mantra resurfaced.

It’s time to trade Pierce. Do you see how slow and old he looks? A team close to contending for a title would definitely give up some valuable pieces for Pierce. The same goes for KG. It’s time to dismantle this team for some first round picks and look towards rebuilding for the future.

Sentiments and statements like these permeate Boston whenever something bad happens for the Celtics. Why? Because it is the easy avenue to take in that particular situation. And for the most part, with exceptions, mainstream members of the Boston media are cowards afraid to take an original, risky, non-mainstream stance towards the Celtics, or any Boston team for that matter.


Has Pierce ever looked particularly strong, fast, muscular, or athletically dominant on the court? No. He’s just a thoroughbred fucking baller from Compton who was born to score. Is he old now? Yes. And hate to break it to you, but no contending team is going to give up much for him, or KG, at this point. If you haven’t noticed, the NBA is a league geared towards young superstars (key word=young). Paul Pierce and KG are both superstar, hall of fame NBA players. But they are closer to being coaches than they are young guns.

And it sickens me that loyalty counts for nothing. There are few athletes in Boston history who have given up more for their team and their city than Paul Pierce has for the Boston Celtics. He’s played here his entire career and has stuck with the organization through thick and thin. The team sucked for years. He has dealt with rumors of being traded. He has dealt with problematic teammates. He has dealt with nearly being stabbed to death in the middle of the city, for no reason besides the fact he was Paul Pierce.

And yet he has to turn on the radio and TV every season, for a certain period of time, and listen to the fact that now because the team has hit a rough patch, he is worth nothing more than a late-round draft pick in next year’s draft, at best. That must make him feel great. The same goes for KG, a guy who left Minnesota set to bring our city a title. And together with Paul and Ray, he did just that.

If the Celtics were presented with some sort of favorable draft pick/player combo for Pierce or KG, would the logical thing as an NBA GM be to take it? Maybe. Probabaly. 

But in my mind (which I can admit is that of a 23 year-old homer who can’t remember a day when Paul Pierce wasn’t my favorite athlete in the world), there are certain cases in sports where an athlete has earned his right to hang it up in the city he has hooped it up for his entire career. And that is the case for Paul Pierce. And if KG wants to end his career in Boston, he should have that right as well.

I’ve never doubted the Celtics as an organization since they acquired KG and Ray Allen and the Big 3 era began. But the day they trade away Pierce or Garnett, which always seems to be imminent with Ainge at the helm, is the day I walk away from the organization in disgust. Because both players have earned the right to retire here. And if you don’t think that, I’m sorry, but you’re just a fucking moron.

You know who the Celtics really miss this season? Ray Allen. You know why he left? Because of hearing this shit. That he was going to be traded imminently so that the team could rebuild for the future. And we’re lucky Pierce and KG haven’t been driven out of town by the same garbage. Ray leaving was the beginning of the end of the Big 3 era. The remainder should be allowed to come to its natural end.

So to the “blow it up” crowd: Fuck off. There’s no room for you in this great town.

(Guest Post)