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Doc Rivers was back in Boston Thursday for a charity event and spoke to WEEI, the Celtics station, about Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, two of his favorite subjects. He's talked about both when they were traded to the Nets but Thursday, we spoke in-depth.
First on Garnett ... Mason Plumee's getting some new threads
"Fans never got to see Kevin’s personality. I wish the city got to know Kevin more. He’s the single best athlete that I’ve ever been around as far as being a team guy. He’s as ‘team’ of a star as I’ve ever seen. A lot of stars are stars, but he’s unselfish, to a fault at times, but every coach should be able to coach Kevin Garnett just to see what a true team player should be."
"He did a lot of good things that people don’t know. When rookies came in, he would bring them up to my office. He’d sit them down, and then he would bring his tailor in and say, ‘If you want to be a pro, you’ve got to dress like a pro.’ And he would buy each rookie two suits, and he did it every year. To me, that says a lot about Kevin Garnett as a teammate."
On Pierce, who Jason Kidd has said has become a Nets team leader, Rivers spoke mainly about how much he wanted to stay a Celtic until he retired.
"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."
Bottom line for Rivers...the Nets got two guys who teammates and fans are going to love.
- Back in Boston for ABCD charity event, Doc Rivers laments departure of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce from Celtics - Justin Barrasso - WEEI
- Doc Rivers really, really appreciates Kevin Garnett - Jay King - Springfield Republican