An Open Letter to Danny Ainge

Yesterday, there were rumors circulating that there were teams looking to make a deal with the Celtics to acquire Paul Pierce. I'm not Pierce's biggest fan, in fact, he pisses me off. But, (and maybe it's the chick in me) I feel like trading Paul Pierce away is trading away the face of the franchise.  He's been with us for his entire career (since 1998). Granted, during that time he demanded a trade because he wanted to be on a winning team, but despite the temper tantrum, he stuck with us.

Danny Ainge sat down with the Boston Globe yesterday to comment on these rumors and he stated that if he was presented the right deal he'd totally blow up the Big 3.  You can read that article here.

This annoys the ever living crap out of me. And, I'd like to give a shout out to my good friend, Christina, the creator of the Curiosity and Two Cats blog for dealing with my rant this morning. So now, I'm going to go into my fantasy world where I pretend I know everything, and that I can run the Celtics organization better than Danny Ainge. In fact, I'm going to tell him how to run his team:

Mr. Ainge,

I am absolutely APPALLED that you would make such a statement at blowing up the Big 3 if the deal was right. First, you criticized Red Auerbach for not trading away Larry Bird or McHale.  How dare you! Red Auerbach is the best thing that ever happened to the Celtics, not even the Celtics, but the game of basketball, and for you to make such a comment is preposterous! Red Auerbach treated the Celtics organization like his family, not as a money maker. And the fact that you don't hold the team in the same regard makes me absolutely sick. Family trumps money. Hands down.

So, let me teach you a little something about family trumping money. You can't get rid of Paul Pierce. Why? Because he is our family. He is the only one that has stuck by and stayed with us through everything the last 14 years. Granted, there were times when he wanted to jump ship, but who hasn't? But he stayed. I'm sure there were plenty of opportunities for him to leave. But he didn't. For you to make a deal to get rid of him now, toward the end of his career would hurt the city of Boston more than your spectacular deal last season when you traded Perk. Yeah, that's right. We're STILL pissed about it.   Granted, I'm not Paul's biggest fan. I don't particularly like him...BUT he's a franchise player. He's almost done. Just let him ride out his career with us.  Don't be a jerk.

Next, why would you consider getting rid of Ray Allen? Yes, he's old. But guess what? He's better than half the young kids out there!! His conditioning is out of control. I read somewhere that's he's been diagnosed as OCD and it shows on the court.  He STAYS at the practice facility no matter how long it takes until he hits a certain amount of shots. He is the most dedicated player we have.  If you get rid of him - You're ridiculous.

I'll give you something though, if you want to blow up the Big 3, please feel free to get rid of Garnett.  Kevin Garnett is terrible. Like my husband says, he's the Josh Beckett of the Celtics. He's had one good season with us. That's it.  Also, he's the most hated player in the entire league.  Get him out of Boston. Fine.

Lastly, you're just NOW worrying about the future of our team? When you first acquired Ray Allen I thought "Why is he giving up a 5th round pick for Ray Allen for? Ray's getting old!" However, I quickly learned that was a good move. Especially considering we got Jeff Green back last year (but may I remind you, we lost Perk for him, and now he's doing nothing for us with his health issues this year). But, okay...good move.

But whenever you got rid of our future for Kevin Garnett, I was really baffled at that one. If you need a reminder of the bogus move you made there, here, I dug up an article for you.  You gave up 4 guys age 24 or younger.  THEY were our future.  I'm still baffled at why you did that one.

Okay, yes, we had a ring mixed in there after you made those moves. Boston finally won the Championship after years of waiting. But that's it. We got that one solid year.  If I could, I'd give up that one championship and a few more seasons of heartbreak to have the young talent we once had to mold into a dynasty and have multiple years of championships.  We can't go back and change the past to see what the future could have been for the Celtics, but I had faith in that team. And that faith is something I don't have, and never had in you. Please don't let Boston down.

Regards,
J-Sabe