Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck believes Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett's jerseys will both be retired

The Boston Celtics have retired more jersey numbers than any other professional sports team in the USA with a count of 21. And according to co-owner Wyc Grousbeck, it looks like both #34 and #5 will be added to the rafters when Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett retire in the near future.

In an interview with WEEI.com, Grousbeck said this about Pierce:

“We’re going to retire his number, whatever happens. Paul is an all-time great. Just watching him last night, he looked like he was 25 again. … People can’t say ‘Big deal, they’re playing for two hours. What’s the big hardship?’ It’s a grind and that was a grind last night in overtime and everything else. They could have folded up the tent and they didn’t.”

It's expected that Pierce's jersey would be retired since he has spent all of his NBA career with the Celtics, but according to NESN, Grousbeck also indicated that Kevin Garnett's number would also join Pierce's:

“These are guys that I can’t imagine giving those numbers out to anybody else,” Grousbeck said on WEEI.

Grousbeck called Pierce the “linchpin” of the Celtics’ success during his tenure, which predates Grousbeck’s involvement with the team as part of Boston Basketball Partners LLC. Grousbeck also referenced the oft-repeated claim that Garnett changed the culture when he came to Boston in 2007, and cited Garnett’s decision to turn down multiple offers to play elsewhere as a free agent last summer and through trades this season as a contributing factor to the inevitability that The Big Ticket’s number will eventually be retired.

So Kevin Garnett could possibly join a fairly small group of NBA players that have had their number retired for multiple teams, should his number be retired in both Boston and Minnesota.

While many have called for the Celtics to trade Pierce and Garnett in order to become younger, I personally would like to see both retire as Celtics, even if Wyc has assured that both of their numbers will be retired.