Throughout their six years together in Boston, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were almost always accountable and available to the media after every game. Win or lose, good or bad, two-thirds of the so-called “Big Three” rarely ducked their responsibilities as leaders of the team.
Ten games into their first season in Brooklyn, Pierce and Garnett apparently have shirked that responsibility.
Pierce and Garnett were among the Nets stars who vacated the premises before speaking with reporters after Brooklyn’s 108-98 loss to Portland on Monday. Only Jason Terry, Shaun Livingston, Alan Anderson, Mason Plumlee and Tornike Shengelia were present in the locker room and available for questions after the game, according to Nets Daily.
“It’s on all of us,” Livingston told reporters. “I take a majority of that [responsibility] as well because as the point guard you go to initiate the offense.”
The absence of any recognizable stars was unfortunate, because the disappointing Nets (3-7) have a lot of questions that need to be answered. Sure, Pierce and Garnett are not at the top of the food chain in Brooklyn, but future Hall of Famers are de facto spokesmen for their team no matter their roles. It comes with the territory, and on Monday, Pierce and Garnett failed to live up to it.
To be sure, Pierce and Garnett weren’t above the occasional postgame absence during their time with the Celtics, and Garnett had to be forced to speak with reporters before games, as stipulated by NBA rules, and even then he rarely did. But the fact that they were silent on Monday, when their team with high preseason expectations continued to wallow in mediocrity, may have shown just how tough things are in Brooklyn.
Actually, Pierce and Garnett did field one question. As Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops passed them in the hallway, Scotto apparently said, “Sup?”
They didn’t answer.
