Usually, basketball players compete on the court: for loose balls, for rebounds, to score and shut down, for victories. But today, the two men who have led the depth chart at small forward for the Brooklyn Nets competed indirectly for the best comment about the Nets-Celtics trade this offseason that swapped the men’s jerseys.
The always-vocal Gerald Wallace, who manned the small forward position for 69 games (68 starts) last season for the Nets, said earlier this year that the Nets look confused, not like championship contenders. Today, when asked about it again, he slowed the pace a bit:
G. Wallace says he won't talk about Nets. Why? "That was suggested by my mom: Keep my mouth shut. So I don't want to talk about it."
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) December 9, 2013
It’s hard to imagine anyone exerting enough control over the brash, honest Wallace to keep him in line, but if anyone can do it, it’s definitely the woman who raised him.
Not to be outdone, Pierce was asked about moving on from Boston, where he’d spent his entire professional career. While most players tend towards the company line, acknowledging that the NBA is a business and players get traded and you can’t take it personally, Pierce gave a unique, colorful answer to the question.
Pierce on transition from Boston to BK: "I'm a guy that when it's time to move on you move on. You can ask any girlfriend I've ever had."
— Andy Vasquez (@andy_vasquez) December 9, 2013
For the record, Pierce married Julie Pierce (née Landrum) in 2010, so he also knows when to settle down.
