Doc Rivers: Paul Pierce has to retire as a Celtic
The Clippers head coach indicated plans are already in place for an eventual Boston farewell for Pierce.
Paul Pierce has yet to tell Doc Rivers whether he’ll return for his 19th NBA season, but the Clippers head coach already knows where the 38-year-old will be headed if he elects to call it a career before the 2016-17 season: one final stint with the Celtics. “I think it’s important,” Rivers said when asked about Pierce retiring as a Celtic while back in Boston at the ABCD Hoop Dreams fundraiser event Tuesday. “I think we have to do that. And I think we will. Danny [Ainge] and Mike [Zarren], we’ve already talked. The day he retires he’s going to retire a Celtic. He has to. Paul’s a Celtic. So when he retires he’s got to retire as a Celtic. I don’t think anyone disagrees with me.”Pierce played the first 15 seasons of his career in Boston, including nine under Rivers before Pierce was traded with Kevin Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2013. Garnett and Ray Allen are also considering playing in the NBA next season, a scenario that Rivers never foresaw when the Celtics acquired both via trade to team up? with Pierce back in 2007. “I told the guys when we got them together, ‘We’ve got to win this year. I don’t know how long you’re playing. I thought like two or three years. So I was a little wrong on that one for sure,” Rivers explained.Pierce is under contract with the Clippers for two more seasons, but after averaging career lows in several categories [points, rebounds, shooting percentage, minutes] in his first season in Los Angeles, Rivers is giving him all the time he needs to consider his next move. “Depends on the day I talk to him,” Rivers said on whether Pierce will play again. “Paul has had the summer, he’s gone back and forth. I think he has a right to do that. I really do…He still may change his mind next week. So we just have to wait. I told him if I see him at training camp, I’m assuming he’s playing.”NBA training camps open up in under three weeks, and Rivers is not expecting a decision from Pierce before then, despite reports that the 10-time All-Star was leaning towards a return. “I’m going to talk to him this week,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to get an answer this week. Let’s put it that way.”
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