Today at media day Pierce confirmed that he would have considered retirement if Kevin Garnett had decided not to return this summer:

“I really wasn’t confident he was coming back,” Pierce told the Boston Globe. “Kevin said, ‘This is it for me.’ … But I’ve learned with Kevin that when he says no he means yes, and when he says yes he means no. But this is in his blood, this is what he’s born to be. I knew one thing, I wouldn’t want to go through a rebuilding phase. It was something I would have had to think long and hard about. If there was another team out there for me, I would have considered that.”

With Garnett signed for three more years Pierce admitted that he hopes they’ll retire together, and I can’t think of a more fitting way for this duo to end their careers. When Pierce and Garnett finally do walk away it will be a bittersweet end of an era for the Celtics, but I hope five years later they find themselves side by side as they’re inducted into the Hall of Fame. Like many of us, Danny Ainge wasn’t sure what the final decision of the two would be this summer, but he had this to say:

“Let’s just be grateful that both those guys didn’t retire,” said Ainge. “Both those guys played great last season. Those guys have a lot of basketball left in them. The will is there. They’ll find a way.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself.