Rich Levine had a nice piece today on Paul Pierce.  I’m about to go golfing (aka assault my local course with a barrage of three-putts) so I can’t write a long post about it, but I’ll leave you with a couple interesting quotes from Pierce.

On playing the Lakers, his favorite team growing up:

“Is it a little weird? Yeah. I mean, definitely,” Pierce said. “But, I think it’s weirder for my friends, who are not playing for the Celtics, and who grew up LA fans and are all of a sudden Celtics fans because of me. For me, I’ve accepted the Celtics tradition. I’m a part of it. I’m here now, and I’m for the Celtics.”

On Ron Artest:

“We’ve been playing against each since he was in Indiana,” Pierce said of Artest. “He’s a great competitor. A guy who has been on the All-Defensive team. A guy who I’ve matched up with over the last 10-11 years. He’s one of the best defenders I’ve ever played against. He takes pride in that. Just being able to lock down his opponents night in and night out. We’ve had some battles, and it’s going to be a tough challenge.

“He’s the most physical player at that position, at the wing. Even though he plays forward and guard, he plays you like a power forward/center. He likes to bang you, grab you, hold you, pull your shorts down. Anything. By playing him over the years, I’ve become used to the things he tries to do. I just try to go out and play my game, and not get into the antics with him.” [...]

“Ron is a perfect compliment to Kobe,” Pierce said. You know, last time we played them, you saw Kobe going around guarding everyone from me, Ray Allen to Rondo, and he doesn’t have that pressure anymore. Now he does haven’t to think so hard on defensive and can do what he does best. Control the game and make clutch shots and will his team to win.”

On Kobe:

“I’ve been through series when I’ve had to guard Wade, LeBron, Vince Carter—I’m not saying those guys are on Kobe level, but mentally and physically, I’m ready for the challenge.”

On the possibility of winning another championship:

“It means everything,” he said. “First, solidifying what I’ve done in my career in Boston, and then, hopefully can move me up the ranks of best Celtics players of all time, maybe even NBA history.” [...]

“I want to play against LA,” he said. “I want to go there and try to win the championship in my hometown, again.”

Now, I’m off to go play it as it lies.  Wish me luck… the golf gods know I’m going to need it.

After a year of wishing illness and injury upon Rasheed Wallace, it's strange to hope he'll be healthy.

Rajon Rondo and Rasheed Wallace both had to miss portions of today’s practice due to their injuries suffered against the Orlando Magic.  (ESPNBoston)

Sheed missed most of the practice and wasn’t allowed to take part in any contact drills.  Rondo was able to participate in 75-80% of the practice and felt “pretty good.”

Rondo, whose muscle spasms limited him toward the end of the series, is expected to be fine by Game 1 against the Lakers.  Sheed’s health, on the other hand, is a wild card.  Doc Rivers is unsure whether he will be ready for Game 1.

“Rondo felt pretty good, he went 75-80 percent of practice,” said Rivers. “Rasheed is not right yet, he did the skeleton offense stuff, but other than that, we didn’t allow any contact. So if we have a concern right now with anybody, [Wallace] would be the only one.”

I don’t have to tell you how important Rondo’s health will be, and Sheed’s length will also be a very big factor against the Lakers’ terrific size.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers was a guest on the Dennis and Callahan Show this morning on WEEI Radio. Rivers discussed the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, Kobe Bryant, Nate Robinson’s break-out Game 6, and much more.

Click here for the full transcript.

Some highlights of the interview:

I’m going to guess that your players would recoil at the idea of ever being considered underdogs.

We don’t think that way. We don’t care what others think. We believed going into the playoff rounds that we could get here and win it. We thought we needed to be healthy, and we did get healthy. I don’t know how healthy we are now, but we’re getting closer again. That was key for us. We just believe that the 23-5 team was the real team, at the beginning of the season. The 27-27 the rest of the way was due to different circumstances that had nothing to do with basketball. And we believe that as a group.

Though Doc says the Celics don’t think that way or care what others think, I disagree. This Celtics team–like the 2008 champions– plays with a chip on their shoulder when they are the underdogs, or when they feel disrespected.

Just look at the Orlando series. With Orlando the prohibitive favorite before the series began, Boston took the first three games in dominant, statement-making fashion. After taking a 3-0 lead, however, Boston fell asleep at the wheel when the majority of sports fans expected them to take care of business in Game 4, or at least Game 5. Then, when the tide turned once again, and loudmouth sportwriters started comparing the Celtics to the Bruins, expecting a historical collapse, Boston once again made a statement with a dominant Game 6 victory.

Doc on Nate Robinson:

Nate Robinson didn’t play because we needed him in Game 6. Nate Robinson played because he played so well in Game 5, the game that Orlando beat us. It wasn’t the offensive end, it was the defensive end. He was doing all the things that we needed him to do, that we worked with him on. You could see that he had bought in. I remember turning to our bench early on and saying, “Hey, Nate’s going to help us.”

I look forward to seeing more of Nate Robinson in the NBA Finals, and I think he has solidified a spot in the rotation with his Game 6 performance. Like Doc said, his defense was fantastic. Robinson will be able to harass Lakers point guards Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar with his quick feet and in-your-face defense. Both defensively and offensively, Robinson–like any good bench player–provides a change of pace from Rajon Rondo.

On defense, Rondo is more of a gambler, trying to play passing lanes or reach for steals, while Robinson plays chest to chest defense. On offense, Rondo is a premier facillitator, while Robinson is more of a scorer and a much better shooter. Both should have their way with Derek Fisher. Too much quickness for the old man to deal with.

And, one last parting gift from Doc’s interview:

I know the history. I love the history of the game. To be part of it is huge for me, personally. But you feel a responsibility. You don’t want them to beat you. And that’s just the bottom line. Let’s say you were playing Phoenix. You still would want to win the world championship, obviously. But you’re playing the Lakers, and it’s like you’re thinking more about you want to beat them and less about wanting to win the title. And that’s probably good…But I think at the start of this year when we started out hot and they started out hot, I think both teams — I know we did, we thought, “Let’s get back to them.”

That pink tie looks great, Thibs.

After years of being overlooked for every head coaching opening despite his own sterling reputation as a defensive Einstein, Tom Thibodeau is finally going to get a head coaching job… as long as he doesn’t vastly overplay his hand.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Thibs’ agency has begun contract discussions with the New Orleans Hornets.  However, the deal is far from done.  Thibodeau would like to keep his options open for a potential offer from the New Jersey Nets or Chicago Bulls.  Both the Bulls and Nets jobs are considered better opportunities than the Hornets — the Bulls have Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and cap room, while the Nets have plenty of cap space and a Russian owner with bottomless pockets focused on nothing but winning championships (well, that and making jet-skiing instructional videos starring himself).

Woj reports that Thibs’ number one choice is the Bulls, but Thibs may have to decide between taking a Hornets offer that’s already on the table and waiting for an offer from Chicago or New Jersey that might not come. The Hornets could rescind their offer if they feel Thibs is using other opportunities as leverage.

And Thibs is likely to have other opportunities.  He is being mentioned as a favorite for both the Nets job and the Bulls position he seeks.  The Chicago Daily Herald (h/t Green Street) reports that Thibs is one of two clear-cut candidates for the Bulls job, with former Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks being the other.  However, there is speculation the Bulls could hire Brian Shaw (former Lakers player and now a Lakers assistant) in an attempt to lure Lebron James, who apparently has some interest in playing in the triangle offense.  Of course, all the Shaw talk seems to be wild speculation… as is almost everything we’ve heard about Lebron this summer.

Thibs is certainly a sought-after man.

In his article this morning, Gary Washburn wondered whether Paul Pierce was the greatest player ever born in L.A.

There have been some great players from the Los Angeles area, including Marques Johnson, Gail Goodrich, Byron Scott, Reggie Theus, and Paul Westphal, and Pierce has joined that group. He is on the verge of the 20,000-point mark. An eight-time All-Star and the 2008 NBA Finals MVP, he could be poised to join the Mount Rushmore of Celtic greats.

That arguably makes him the best player ever to emerge from the Los Angeles area.

With that list, is it even close?  Don’t get me wrong, there are some very good players on that list —  Pierce is simply better than all of them.  With Pierce’s longevity as a star and Finals MVP award under his belt, he’s the best player ever to come from L.A. (as long as Washburn’s list is complete) and there is no real argument.  Of course, it’s a holiday and I’m too lazy right now to check if Washburn’s list has every L.A. great — I guess I’ll just have to trust him that it does.

Even Marques Johnson, probably the second-best from L.A., agrees with me that Pierce is the city’s greatest.  ”The fact he has led a team to a championship, he’s threatening to etch his name on the top of that list,” Johnson said. “It’s hard for me to give it up, I give it up begrudgingly, but when you look at his total body of work, you have to.”

Johnson then continued to describe a cool story of Pierce competing — and more than holding his own — against professionals when Pierce was only 15 or 16.

“Paul was killing, and I am thinking he was a pretty solid 14-year-old,’’ Johnson said. “And when I asked his coach how old he was, he was like, ‘12 or 13,’ and he was a year or two younger than the rest of the guys. And it was like, ‘OK, this kid here is special.’ And I watched him play at UCLA against pros when he was about 15 or 16 and he was able to do things real effortlessly. When a kid looks like he belongs and excels and dominates at times, you know he was a special player. And we’ve always known he was a special player. I am really, really proud of the way his career has taken off.’’

Washburn wrote a nice piece but I disagree with the two concluding sentences, a quote from Johnson.

“I think we are living vicariously through Paul, whatever he does, we back in LA are proud of him. He represents us.”

At one point, perhaps it was true that Pierce represented L.A. At this point, and I think Pierce would agree with me, he represents Beantown.

Are you serious, Ted Green? Nice joke, dude.

Ted Green wrote a column today in the L.A. Times that explains all the reasons to hate the Boston Celtics.  That’s all fun and games; everyone in L.A. is supposed to hate the Celtics, so I’m fine with him verbalizing the hatred.  Plus, I certainly have a lot of things I could write about hating Kobe, Pau, Fisher and Vuja-bitch.

But why did Green have to make fun of the stabbing that almost took Pierce’s life nine years ago?  Why would the L.A. Times’ editor ever allow that garbage onto its pages?

Green wrote, “By the way, Pierce’s idea of a fun night is going clubbing and getting stabbed. Good times!”

Are you kidding me?  That night wasn’t Pierce’s idea of a good time, it was his worst nightmare.  It was a struggle for his life.  Pierce came within inches of death, saved only by a thick leather jacket he was wearing and the hand of God, and this idiot Green wants to make fun of him for it?  Is a near-death experience really a fucking joke?  Is the worst night of someone’s life really an “idea of a fun night?”

My website isn’t a famous newspaper like the L.A. Times, but even I wouldn’t stoop to attacking somebody’s near-death experience.  I wouldn’t even write, “Kobe’s idea of a fun night is going to Denver and having sexual intercourse with a woman who isn’t his wife.  Good times!” and I would never think to write “Derek Fisher’s idea of a fun night is going to the hospital in the middle of a playoff game because his child is very sick.  Good times!” or “Magic Johnson’s idea of a fun night is getting diagnosed with the H.I.V. virus. Good times!”

I know Green meant his incredibly ignorant comment as a joke, but there are some things you don’t joke about.  Somewhere very near the top of the “don’t joke about this” list is when somebody nearly gets murdered in cold blood.  I don’t care how big a Lakers fan you are, Green’s attempted humor should make you sick.  He’s going to joke about a nearly fatal stabbing?  Really?  Why not joke about Reggie Lewis’s death, or Ray Allen’s child’s Diabetes?  Those jokes would have been just as “funny” as the Pierce “joke.”

And I’ve barely even gotten started on the dumbass editor who let this shit be published.  How could you possibly read this filth and allow it to go public?  How did the editor not stop this piece at the desk, or at least take out the worst joke ever made in a big-time newspaper?  How?

My skin started to prickle when I read the Pierce line, and I was embarrassed for everyone affiliated with the L.A. Times’ sports desk.

And before I go, I have one last thought on Green’s “joke:”

Pierce’s idea of a fun night isn’t getting stabbed, I think that’s pretty clear.  His idea of a fun night is kicking the Lakers’ asses in the Finals.