Fair share
BOSTON – Three stars. One basketball. Zero complaints.
Boston’s Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are playing for a championship in their first year together, finding success in the kind of selflessness only losing can teach.
Their scoring is down. Their minutes are down. But their spirits are up, because after a combined 2,774 career games, they’re about to play their first in the NBA Finals.
“We’ve all been on that side of the fence, where everybody pats you on your back and tells you they love you because you hit the last-second shot,” Allen said this week as the Celtics prepared for tonight’s series opener against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Now, it’s about winning, and being able to say that you won, and being to that certain promised land that everybody talks about trying to get to. We know we need each other to get there. Sometimes doing less is more.”
With 25 All-Star appearances, thousands of points and, yes, plenty of winning shots, the Big Three have resumes to admire. Garnett already has Hall of Fame credentials, and Pierce and Allen would have a better chance if they’re riding through downtown Boston in a parade this month.
“They all had great individual careers, and they needed team success. And I think that helped us,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “They have done everything except for one thing, and the one they haven’t done you can’t buy.”
A career 21-point scorer and eight-time All-Star, Allen’s average went up each year for five seasons before he was traded to Boston last summer. As the third option in the Big Three, he dropped nine points off his average from last year – from 26.4 to 17.4.
Pierce had averaged 25 points from 2000-2007. He was down to 19.6 per game this season.
Oh, but there was one stat that went up: assists.
“When we first got together, we talked about all those things. But at the end of the day we said, ‘What’s the ultimate goal: winning ballgames,’ ” Pierce said.
Garnett was a 20-point, 10-rebound guy for each of the previous nine seasons. His numbers are also down this year – 18.8 and 9.2 – but no one is suggesting that his performance dropped off. He finished third in the MVP voting and was named the NBA’s defensive player of the year.
“I think the reason the three of us work is because we actually don’t just talk to you guys about sacrifice, but it’s something that we actually exercise,” Garnett said Wednesday. “It’s our way of life. It’s what we do, it’s what we’ve been doing.”
For Rivers, sacrificing yourself for the team is a nonnegotiable part of his philosophy.
“That’s not something I’m ever going to give in to,” he said.
Sure, but a lot of coaches preach selflessness only to be undermined by players with big contracts and big egos.
“There have been guys I haven’t reached, let’s put it that way,” Rivers said, “and none of them are here.”