Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
[…]Rivers acknowledged that the 2011 Kendrick Perkins–Jeff Green trade was a mistake that ultimately hurt Garnett.
“I think so,” reflected Rivers, “because we needed the toughness. The one thing we did by losing Perk was we removed Kevin’s protector. I didn’t think it was a coincidence that, after Perk left, that Kevin got into all those little flicks with the other teams. Perk deflected all that.”
“I didn’t want Paul to go, even though I knew it was coming,” said Rivers. “That was a tough one for me. Even when I was here and it was being talked about — my thing is, Kobe [Bryant] is going to end up being a Laker for life. Dirk [Nowitzki] is going to be a Maverick. That’s the one thing that, if we didn’t do right, that was the one right thing we didn’t do for Paul.”
WEEI: Doc Rivers laments departure of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce from Celtics
I know Doc is just answering questions, and now that he’s no longer part of the team (and now that he and Danny Ainge have gotten into a little pissing match over how he left), Doc can go ahead and tell us things he felt he couldn’t before.
And so we get to hear about the Perkins trade all over again, which I felt like we had finally put to bed this past season with Jeff Green taking on an increased and important role while Perk faded into “they should amnesty this guy” territory. We finally accepted that the Celtics got the best guy in the trade, despite how much we loved Perk (and continue to), the trade ultimately worked out in Boston’s favor.
But this will just drag up some revisionist history that ignores the fact that the one guy who couldn’t get hurt was Marquis Daniels, since he was the only guy who could spell Paul Pierce. And the one guy who DID get hurt was Marquis Daniels, leaving the Celtics in a lurch that forced them to take a gamble on moving a popular player they weren’t going to re-sign anyway.
Meanwhile, poking at the fresh wound that is the Paul Pierce trade doesn’t help us much either.
You know, camp is only a few weeks away. We’ll be seeing Pierce traipsing around in that not-Boston jersey soon enough and it will sting pretty good. This is just the lemon juice being poured into the cut.
The one thing that needed absolutely no confirmation but was provided to us anyway was Kevin Garnett’s liberal use of curses.
Rivers also admitted that Garnett has an interesting use of the English language.
“The word that starts with ‘f’? He thought it was a noun, verb and an adjective,” Rivers said.
This is why Kevin Garnett could never be mic’d up for broadcasts. His vocabulary would melt the microphone.
Yet I know, as a person who has worked around the media, photogs, and editors for a long time, that somewhere, someone has compiled a reel of things Kevin Garnett has said on the court. Somewhere in America, I will guarantee you, there exists some string of video that is a compilation of expertly strewn expletives flowing from the mouth of Kevin Maurice Garnett while participating in NBA games.
Forget Miley swinging naked on a wrecking ball or adaptations of a waffle falling over… that video would instantly become the most glorious chunk of internet real estate in the history of the internets.
If you’re out there, and you have this video….. do the right thing. Share this glorious concoction with the world.
The rest of the links:
CSNNE: Celtics, 98.5, finalizing broadcast deal | Rivers: Didn’t feel right to trade Pierce | Celtics.com: Phil Pressey 1-on-1 (video) | ESPN Boston: Countdown to camp: Date night | Newport Daily News (Twitter): Part of C’s camp to be held in Newport, RI |
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