KG Says He Would Have Retired if Not Traded With Pierce

So, it was all or nothing.  Looking at things that way, finding a team that would take on all those salary dollars (Pierce, $15M, Garnett, $10M, JET, $5M.  That's 30-freaking-million dollars!  That's more than half the salary cap!) and throw in 3 first rounders and only one non-expiring contract to boot is a coup by Trader Danny.  It's not as big as the deal that brought KG to Boston, because we won't know for 5 years or so how this one will turn out, but it's big.  Not just because of the size of it, but because of the fulcrum turning impact of it.  I've also read that, if Pierce had been traded and the Celtics started a rebuild, KG would have retired also.


Kevin Garnett Says He Would Have Retired If He Was Traded Without Paul Pierce
BY ADAM FROMAL (FEATURED COLUMNIST) ON SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

NBA rims should be thankful that Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have such a strong relationship.

Between KG's defensive skills and his trademark tendency of grabbing shots that are lofted up after play has stopped, he'll be saving them from a lot of wear and tear they would have otherwise been subjected to if he'd retired. And the new Brooklyn Nets power forward would have pulled the plug on his NBA career if he hadn't been traded along with Pierce.

As shared by Mark Vandeusen of CelticsLife.com, Garnett recently said the following in an interview with China's Sina Sports:

Moderator: Can you say if the transaction object is only you, no Pierce, you would choose to reject it?

Garnett: I would refuse, if I was traded away, I would choose to retire, without a doubt, I would choose a direct retired.

The wording is a little funky here, but that's what happens when English is translated into Chinese and then back into English without the help of someone who's fluent in both languages. The message should still be quite clear.

Garnett would have retired if he had been traded to the Nets without Pierce. That's how badly he wanted to continue playing with his longtime friend and teammate.

This isn't a friendship that blossomed once they started playing together in Beantown. Far from it. In an interview with Sean Deveney of Sporting News, Garnett revealed that he and Pierce used to hang out as teenagers:

We were 13, 14 years old, tearing up his mom's living room, breaking vases, almost getting ass-whooped. First time I ever experienced Crenshaw on a Sunday—for you all that don't know what Crenshaw on a Sunday is, Crenshaw on a Sunday is a big deal—Crenshaw on a Sunday taking me out being 15, 16 years old.

The friendship continued well after their teenage years.


Pierce's presence on the Boston Celtics roster drew KG into the fold after his Minnesota Timberwolves tenure had come to a close. They continued to thrive next to one another, winning a championship and making plenty of stellar postseason runs. Now they're hoping to do the same—just in a different uniform.

Imagining an NBA without Garnett is just unfathomable, especially after the retirements of both Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady, ones that left every '90s kid feeling a little heartbroken. We need someone to make fun of Craig Sager's suits, after all.



bob


.

Personally, I wasn't brokenhearted about TMac and A.I. retiring.


KJ

k_j_88 wrote:Personally, I wasn't brokenhearted about TMac and A.I. retiring.


KJ

KJ,

Ditto.


bob

.

bobheckler wrote:So, it was all or nothing.  Looking at things that way, finding a team that would take on all those salary dollars (Pierce, $15M, Garnett, $10M, JET, $5M.  That's 30-freaking-million dollars!  That's more than half the salary cap!) and throw in 3 first rounders and only one non-expiring contract to boot is a coup by Trader Danny.  It's not as big as the deal that brought KG to Boston, because we won't know for 5 years or so how this one will turn out, but it's big.  Not just because of the size of it, but because of the fulcrum turning impact of it.  I've also read that, if Pierce had been traded and the Celtics started a rebuild, KG would have retired also.


Kevin Garnett Says He Would Have Retired If He Was Traded Without Paul Pierce
BY ADAM FROMAL (FEATURED COLUMNIST) ON SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

NBA rims should be thankful that Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have such a strong relationship.

Between KG's defensive skills and his trademark tendency of grabbing shots that are lofted up after play has stopped, he'll be saving them from a lot of wear and tear they would have otherwise been subjected to if he'd retired. And the new Brooklyn Nets power forward would have pulled the plug on his NBA career if he hadn't been traded along with Pierce.

As shared by Mark Vandeusen of CelticsLife.com, Garnett recently said the following in an interview with China's Sina Sports:

Moderator: Can you say if the transaction object is only you, no Pierce, you would choose to reject it?

Garnett: I would refuse, if I was traded away, I would choose to retire, without a doubt, I would choose a direct retired.

The wording is a little funky here, but that's what happens when English is translated into Chinese and then back into English without the help of someone who's fluent in both languages. The message should still be quite clear.

Garnett would have retired if he had been traded to the Nets without Pierce. That's how badly he wanted to continue playing with his longtime friend and teammate.

This isn't a friendship that blossomed once they started playing together in Beantown. Far from it. In an interview with Sean Deveney of Sporting News, Garnett revealed that he and Pierce used to hang out as teenagers:

We were 13, 14 years old, tearing up his mom's living room, breaking vases, almost getting ass-whooped. First time I ever experienced Crenshaw on a Sunday—for you all that don't know what Crenshaw on a Sunday is, Crenshaw on a Sunday is a big deal—Crenshaw on a Sunday taking me out being 15, 16 years old.

The friendship continued well after their teenage years.


Pierce's presence on the Boston Celtics roster drew KG into the fold after his Minnesota Timberwolves tenure had come to a close. They continued to thrive next to one another, winning a championship and making plenty of stellar postseason runs. Now they're hoping to do the same—just in a different uniform.

Imagining an NBA without Garnett is just unfathomable, especially after the retirements of both Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady, ones that left every '90s kid feeling a little heartbroken. We need someone to make fun of Craig Sager's suits, after all.



bob


.

Bob,

I thought the trade was very fair to both teams, not a coup for Danny.
Yes, Boston did trade away $30m in salaries for this season but they took back $27.2m.
Boston gets 3 first round draft picks, but there's a pretty good chance that the 2014 and 2016 picks will be in the 20's.
It's too early to speculate on the 2018 pick.
Boston might get a couple of good players with those picks but they could get duds.
Pierce is on an expiring contract and Garnett only had a partial guarantee.
Terry does have two more years left at a total of $11.5m, but Wallace has 3 years for a total of over $30m.
I think this trade really puts each team in the direction they want to go in.
Prokhorov obviously doesn't care about the money.
If his assets go up in value 1% in a day, he has made $130m.
I'm glad KG and Pierce are still together. Brooklyn's roster is stacked with them on it.
I'm sure they will bring a winning mentality to the Nets locker room that they haven't had in a long time.

The deal worked out for everyone.

KG and PP get a chance to win another title. Boston gets to shift modes for the future. No one should have much reason for ill will in this situation.


KJ

Not buying it.

Love KG, always will.

I think he just simply is in no way ready to hang it up.

Sounds nice to say he had to be with Pierce, and I do believe that's his preference. A great and loyal teammate, KG. I just can't see how he would be ready to pack it in had they ended up in different cities.

No way he was quite ready to drive the kids to school every day in the family SUV.

What was he going to do, go home and bang his head against the barbecue grill before throwing a burger on?

Dude needs to be in the heat of competition still...and he's not getting that comparing who's lawn is most weed free.

NYCelt wrote:Not buying it.

Love KG, always will.

I think he just simply is in no way ready to hang it up.

Sounds nice to say he had to be with Pierce, and I do believe that's his preference.  A great and loyal teammate, KG.  I just can't see how he would be ready to pack it in had they ended up in different cities.

No way he was quite ready to drive the kids to school every day in the family SUV.

What was he going to do, go home and bang his head against the barbecue grill before throwing a burger on?

Dude needs to be in the heat of competition still...and he's not getting that comparing who's lawn is most weed free.

Quote of the Day.


bob


.

tjmakz wrote:

bobheckler wrote:So, it was all or nothing.  Looking at things that way, finding a team that would take on all those salary dollars (Pierce, $15M, Garnett, $10M, JET, $5M.  That's 30-freaking-million dollars!  That's more than half the salary cap!) and throw in 3 first rounders and only one non-expiring contract to boot is a coup by Trader Danny.  It's not as big as the deal that brought KG to Boston, because we won't know for 5 years or so how this one will turn out, but it's big.  Not just because of the size of it, but because of the fulcrum turning impact of it.  I've also read that, if Pierce had been traded and the Celtics started a rebuild, KG would have retired also.


Kevin Garnett Says He Would Have Retired If He Was Traded Without Paul Pierce
BY ADAM FROMAL (FEATURED COLUMNIST) ON SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

NBA rims should be thankful that Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have such a strong relationship.

Between KG's defensive skills and his trademark tendency of grabbing shots that are lofted up after play has stopped, he'll be saving them from a lot of wear and tear they would have otherwise been subjected to if he'd retired. And the new Brooklyn Nets power forward would have pulled the plug on his NBA career if he hadn't been traded along with Pierce.

As shared by Mark Vandeusen of CelticsLife.com, Garnett recently said the following in an interview with China's Sina Sports:

Moderator: Can you say if the transaction object is only you, no Pierce, you would choose to reject it?

Garnett: I would refuse, if I was traded away, I would choose to retire, without a doubt, I would choose a direct retired.

The wording is a little funky here, but that's what happens when English is translated into Chinese and then back into English without the help of someone who's fluent in both languages. The message should still be quite clear.

Garnett would have retired if he had been traded to the Nets without Pierce. That's how badly he wanted to continue playing with his longtime friend and teammate.

This isn't a friendship that blossomed once they started playing together in Beantown. Far from it. In an interview with Sean Deveney of Sporting News, Garnett revealed that he and Pierce used to hang out as teenagers:

We were 13, 14 years old, tearing up his mom's living room, breaking vases, almost getting ass-whooped. First time I ever experienced Crenshaw on a Sunday—for you all that don't know what Crenshaw on a Sunday is, Crenshaw on a Sunday is a big deal—Crenshaw on a Sunday taking me out being 15, 16 years old.

The friendship continued well after their teenage years.


Pierce's presence on the Boston Celtics roster drew KG into the fold after his Minnesota Timberwolves tenure had come to a close. They continued to thrive next to one another, winning a championship and making plenty of stellar postseason runs. Now they're hoping to do the same—just in a different uniform.

Imagining an NBA without Garnett is just unfathomable, especially after the retirements of both Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady, ones that left every '90s kid feeling a little heartbroken. We need someone to make fun of Craig Sager's suits, after all.



bob


.

Bob,

I thought the trade was very fair to both teams, not a coup for Danny.
Yes, Boston did trade away $30m in salaries for this season but they took back $27.2m.
Boston gets 3 first round draft picks, but there's a pretty good chance that the 2014 and 2016 picks will be in the 20's.
It's too early to speculate on the 2018 pick.
Boston might get a couple of good players with those picks but they could get duds.
Pierce is on an expiring contract and Garnett only had a partial guarantee.
Terry does have two more years left at a total of $11.5m, but Wallace has 3 years for a total of over $30m.
I think this trade really puts each team in the direction they want to go in.
Prokhorov obviously doesn't care about the money.
If his assets go up in value 1% in a day, he has made $130m.
I'm glad KG and Pierce are still together. Brooklyn's roster is stacked with them on it.
I'm sure they will bring a winning mentality to the Nets locker room that they haven't had in a long time.

TJ and KJ,

Perhaps I wasn't clear in how I define "coup".  A coup is not the same thing as a "steal".

A steal is when one side gets far more in value than the other side.  How would we evaluate "value" in this blockbuster?  Well, if the Nets win a championship with these players, they got HUGE value from it.  If they don't, and their window of opportunity to do it is even shorter than the window we had back in 2008, then it wasn't.  For our part, quantification of value is even more difficult and requires a lot more patience, since those expiring contracts and draft picks, whether we use them ourselves or package them to get another player(s), will require several years at least to evolve and ripen into something we can judge as being a completed project.  In fact, Danny has a history of spinning draft picks and players several times before getting the player he really wants.  The KG from Minny deal and Ray Allen from Seattle deal are good examples of that.  He stockpiled players, developed them (Delonte West, Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes were players that grew in value during the "waiting years") and picks over years.  He turned West, whom he drafted and Wally, whom he traded for and now traded away, and a draft pick for Ray.  He's always trying to roll the ball forward and new players are nothing more than new chips to play.  So, trying to establish the value the Celtics got in this deal will take quite a while since you can't be sure Danny is satisfied.  It was only after he won a championship (faster than any of us expected) that he expressed satisfaction with the core of the roster and changed his strategy and started filling in around them rather than looking for replacements and upgrades for them.

According to dictionary.reference.com a coup is "a highly successful, unexpected stroke, act, or move; a clever action or accomplishment".  As applied to this deal, I'd call getting Brooklyn to take JET, an overpaid 36 year old player with two years left on his contract and who did NOT have a good year, a highly successful, unexpected stroke.  I'd call being able to convince KG to waive his no-trade clause a highly successful and unexpected (given his repeat assertions that he wanted to live and die in green) stroke.  We are going to have a very rough year, I can't sugar coat it, but we are LOADED with draft picks, expiring contracts and a $10M salary exemption for the future.  We also have some solid and perhaps even spectacular core players to start building with, albeit with a number of asterisks:  Rondo (assuming he comes 100% back by 2014-2015), Green (assuming he becomes more consistent), Sully (assuming he's wearing a green jersey with #7 on it and not an orange jumpsuit with a lot more numbers on the back), The Big Knock Out, The Pitbulls (assuming they can re-establish their offense).

For this to have been a coup AND a steal, Brooklyn would have had to give up Brook Lopez instead of Hump.


bob


.

BobH,

I wasn't really referring to it as a "steal" since obviously Boston had to give up a lot in terms of immediate competitiveness.

It was really just to compliment Ainge for pulling the trigger on a tough but necessary move and also helping future prospects for this team.

In the end, my central point was that it's a win-win situation for everyone. Boston gets to move forward in building for the future, Brooklyn instantly gains two key pieces that will make them a contender in the East, PP and KG have the chance to win another title before their window of opportunity closes.

But I will say that Boston is in the best position for long-term success. While Brooklyn doesn't seem to care about the intricacies of the salary cap and taxes involved, they don't have a particularly great team without PP and KG.


KJ

Coup de foudre I think is more like it...a lightning strike!

worcester wrote:Coup de foudre I think is more like it...a lightning strike!

worcester,

Colloquially, un coup de foudre means "love at first sight" (yes, it means a lightning strike too, but if you're talking about someone and not a force of nature, you're saying they hit you like a lightning strike...).

I think you know what I'm talking about...



bob


.

It may have taken a bit to convince KG to accept the trade but there is still basketball left in him and walking away would have been too hard this year. Staying here in Boston without Pierce and Doc was not appealing, so he made the right decision for himself and Pierce.

It is going to be difficult to watch those first few games, without the two of them, but we have all lived thru some big changes over the years with the Celtics. For me, listening to the announcer at the first game announce the starting lineup will be awful.

Will they call rondo "captain"? I hope not! Silly I know, but it will only remind us of the past.

Oh we'll, I can only hope they are happy and succeed in Brooklyn, but, not the four games they play against the Celtics!

Rosalie