Just days after getting his no. 34 retired by the Boston Celtics, Paul Pierce is now campaigning for his former teammate, Kevin Garnett, to get the same honor.
Having played together for seven seasons – six with the Celtics and one with the Brooklyn Nets – the two are pretty much the best of friends, so it's a given that they will have each other's back. They also won a championship with the Cs and had a couple of deep playoff runs.
Here's what Pierce told Chris Forsberg of ESPN in a recent interview:
“Without a doubt, KG's number will be [the next one] retired in Boston… It's going to happen.
“[Garnett would] rather have his jersey retired in Boston than in Minnesota. He'll eventually have his number retired with the Timberwolves, too, but he'll have to wait until management sells the team.”
There's zero doubt about Garnett's contributions and achievements while with the Celtics – one NBA title, two conference titles, one Defensive Player of the Year award, one first-team All-NBA, and four All-NBA defensive team selections. However, it's also easy to argue that he had a rather short stay with the franchise to merit a jersey retirement ceremony. Garnett was in Boston from 2007-2013, and averaged 15.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game on 52-percent shooting during that span.
If you ask Celtics great and current general manager Danny Ainge's opinion though, he'd echo Pierce's recommendation, according to Kirstie Chiapelli of Sporting News:
“It was six years of potential championship-caliber teams and All-Star play from KG… I think that it was a pretty significant impact he had in those six years.”
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