Franchise players in Celtic green don't get traded. They collect 11 rings in 13 years, like Russell. They decide when they've had enough, like Cousy, even as Red Auerbach begged him for more. They stake their permanent claim as the dominant prongs of the original Big Three, like Bird and McHale, who retired on their terms, not those of a basketball executive who needs to be thinking about the business -- not the sentiment -- of his team.
Pierce was not presented with the precious option of determining his own fate. This fact stung him; staggered him, actually. Even though he knew it was coming, when the Celtics finally traded him, he was devastated.
When I visited him in New Jersey last summer, on the day he was introduced for the first time as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, he spent most of our interview near tears.
He wondered aloud why he wasn't given the same consideration as
Kobe Bryant, the Laker for life who has won five championships for Los Angeles, or
Dirk Nowitzki, who became the face of his franchise, the
Dallas Mavericks, even though he brought home just one title. Nowitzki was promised by his owner in a public forum that he would never be traded.
