The first reaction to Paul Pierce's recent comments about Newport was a mix of disappointment, anger and sour grapes. Now that I've had a chance to reread what the Celtics captain told the Boston Globe, the disappointment remains, but the anger, for the most part, has subsided.
For those who haven't seen or heard yet, Pierce, in no uncertain terms, said he'd rather the Celtics didn't return for a third year of training camp at Salve Regina University.
"I think it would be good for this group to get away. I'm really getting tired of Newport. Really, I want to go somewhere else.
"Newport is good, but I want to go somewhere else. It would be good to get away with this type of group, when you have Jermaine and Shaq."
"When you got new guys and these types of personalities, I think it's good for all of us to get out, be at a dinner table -- me, Shaq, Kevin [Garnett], Ray [Allen], Jermaine. I think it would be good for that relationship, building that chemistry. We get away and go somewhere, that's something we'll definitely do.''
Certainly Pierce has every right to speak his mind, especially when it comes to how his team prepares for the 2010-11 season. But someone who's been in the game as long as Pierce should know to choose his words more carefully. Really, if he'd started with "Newport is good, but ..." all would be forgiven.
Maybe he meant no disrespect to our fair city, but to say he's "really getting tired of Newport" seems unnecessarily negative. There are a million ways he could have expressed his thoughts that wouldn't translate, in our minds, as "Newport sucks."
Salve Regina hasn't yet heard from the Celtics about their training camp intentions, but Pierce's comments tell me that Newport was at least a consideration for this year's camp, if not a leading candidate. We'll likely find out in a month or so what the team's plans are.
Like a lot of people around here, I hope the Celtics do come back. I'm not a Celtics fan, but it's been fun the last two years having them around, watching them practice and hearing stories not fit for print about how certain players spent their time outside of practice.
If they do come back, I wonder what kind of welcome Pierce would get around town, if he decided to venture downtown.
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1 comment:
I'm going to assume that Pierce meant no disrespect to Newport the city. But you're right in that he could have been a little more selective with his comments.
Either way, he's still one of the top players in team history, and I hope Newporters don't feel slighted should the team come back to Salve Regina.
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