For the third day in a row, the Celtics were busy officially announcing a recent signing. Thursday was Paul Pierce's turn.
"Paul has been a cornerstone of our franchise for the last decade and we could not be more pleased that he is returning to the team," said Celtics President of Basketball Operations, Danny Ainge.
"I am very excited to be back in Boston," said Pierce. "I have always said that I would love to retire as a Celtic and re-signing here will allow me to do that. I would like to thank Danny, Doc, the ownership group and the rest of the organization. I'm thrilled that they kept the core intact and look forward to getting back on the parquet with my teammates so we can bring Banner 18 home to Boston."
While Pierce is "very excited to be back in Boston," today's press conference was not all positive. Indeed, Pierce took his time in front of the press to address concerns over the Celtics' offseason, saying they still have "a lot of work to do."
"I thought it was a great move picking up Jermaine [O'Neal], giving us an inside presence in case Rasheed [Wallace] retires, but sometimes I'm looking at all the players signing and wish we would get on the ball a little bit. I trust in Danny putting a good team around us, but I'm sitting here watching all these good players fall to other teams." [...]
"We got a lot [to add] right now," said Pierce. "We lost TA, we don't have Nate [Robinson], we might not have Rasheed. We gotta add a bench. We got our work cut out. We need perimeter defense and we need to add a backup point guard to help out [Rajon] Rondo, if Nate doesn't come back. And we need another big."