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Boston Celtics - Did Pierce got suspensons too?
Expert: Fabio Anderle - 11/1/2009
Question
Hello Fabio,
After reading Dan Shaughnessy's column "A fistful of Bird history", few questions are in my mind that need you help.
Pierce was know for the stab accident in 2000, would you tell me if any money fined or game suspensons are been made by organization?
And I'd like to know how your personal comment on Bird, Pierce and Baby 's accidents.
Your Bruno
Answer
Hi Bruno,
so three answers in one:
I think the Celtics managed the "Big Baby" injury situation perfectly. They kind of "cut the losses": they let the player know he had made a huge mistake letting the team down but at the same time they treated him like a professional and didn't stir the relationship with a suspension. So Glen will feel guilty for his unprofessional behavior and when healthy again will give the team 110% to pay out his "debt".
My personal opinion is that, even if a professional player should take care of his health because his body is his main "tool" at work, sometimes things like that can happen. The right thing is to always foresee these problems and avoid to put yourself in such a situation. Maybe Davis will learn from his mistake.
Pierce wasn't fined or suspended, and why should he have been? He was in a nightclub when he was assaulted and stabbed, so he was a victim of the events. Again, I think he should have avoided the situation, there is an old american say that states that "nothing good happens in the streets after midnight". But professional players aren't monks, and we cann't pretend they will always stay home just because they are famous.
Larry Bird's case was different. Shaughnessy's comparison actually wasn't "on the ball" because, even though it seems pretty sure that Bird was in that fight at the Chelsea bar, nobody in the Celtics organization ever reported the extent of his eventual inujury. So how could we tell that his slight drop in the field goal percentage was caused by his possible hand injury, and not by the adjusted defense by the Sixers? Hearsay is that in that fight Larry Bird defended his friend Nick Harris who was being beaten very bad by a local guy (and Harris was indeed admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital), so of course he must have made the same mistake Davis made a few days ago. But he probably didn't suffer a broken bone and if he did he probably played over it without telling the Celtics the real extent of his injury.
In the end, in my opinion while Pierce can't be considered guilty of anything (even though going to nightclubs in the wee hours can be dangerous), Davis broke a finger and wasn't unable to play, and Bird injured his finger but kept playing over it. Davis and Bird were protagonists of unprofessional behavior, because in those fights they didn't consider the fact that they were paid big bucks to play bsketball. And, as "Crash" Davis/Kevin Costner told pitcher "Nuke LaLoosh/Tim Robbins in the movie "Bull Durham", "when you get in a fight with a drunk you don't hit him with your pitching hand"... or in the case of a basketball player, with your shooting hand...
I hope this helps
Fabio
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