Monday was Isaiah Thomas’ time to finally receive the recognition from Boston Celtics fans that he deserved. It also opened up an opportunity for Chauncey Billups to bring up a sore spot with one of his colleagues.
You may recall that last year Paul Pierce blocked Thomas from receiving a video tribute upon a trip to Boston because it would take some attention away from Pierce, who was being honored with his jersey retirement that day. The end result is that Thomas didn’t receive his tribute until Monday, a year and a half after his trade away from the Celtics.
The video tribute went well and ended with a standing ovation for Thomas at TD Garden.
Billups, an analyst at ESPN, had some fun rehashing the past with Pierce. Watch:
Things get awkward with Paul Pierce when confronted about the IT tribute video, tries to excuse it, eventually says "That's my night. If you don't like it, oh well." pic.twitter.com/ylwMPb9D0o
— Cork Gaines (@CorkGaines) March 19, 2019
Pierce hogging the spotlight the day of his jersey retirement was his prerogative and a right he earned, but it rubbed some the wrong way. Billups had some fun bringing that back up again.
