Paul Pierce is set to receive a great honor on February 11, when the Boston Celtics retire his No. 34 jersey during the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. While you would expect for this day to be all about Pierce, the Celtics intended to also play a tribute video to Isaiah Thomas, who will be back on the court for the first time since he was traded to the Cavs. Now, it looks like Pierce will have the night just for himself and doesn’t want to share it with anyone.
“Danny and I talked about it for 40 minutes,” – said Pierce to ESPN on Tuesday. “He told me, ‘This is what we have planned,’ and at the end of the conversation, he said, ‘If you don’t want us to do Isaiah, we won’t.’ So I told him, ‘I really don’t.’ So that was it. That’s how we left it.“
After Pierce’s comments, Isaiah Thomas thanked the Celtics for the offer and said that because of the controversy that has arisen, he asked them to focus solely on Pierce.
I'd like to thank the Celtics for their gracious offer to play a video tribute on Feb 11th celebrating my 3yrs in Boston. But since it appears this has caused some controversy w/ Paul Pierce's night I'd ask the Celtics instead to focus all of their attention on #34's career.
— Isaiah Thomas (@isaiahthomas) January 17, 2018
Pierce explained his decision earlier, saying that he thinks Thomas had a chance of his tribute video before. He refers to January 3 when Thomas first came back to Boston but didn’t play due to his injury. On that night the Celtics only played a tribute video to Jae Crowder, who was also traded to the Cavs in the offseason.
Celtics head of basketball operations Danny Ainge said that the team intended to play the Isaiah Thomas tribute video during the pregame warmups on February 11 and focus the rest of the night on Pierce, but Pierce didn’t want that as well.
Paul Pierce spent 15 seasons with the Boston Celtics – who drafted him in the 1998 NBA draft with the 10th overall pick. He won an NBA championship with the Celtics in 2008 while also being named NBA Finals MVP.
