As this series stretches to Game 6 tonight, we have a lot of fans and media members talking about exhaustion and minutes.
Rubbish.
Listen to captain Pierce in the midnight hour after he beat the Bulls Tuesday.
"You've got to understand, this is not - when we grew up playing basketball, you may play like three or four games in one day."
That's it right there. Pierce is reminding us what Larry Bird said long ago and what players have been saying since the first ball went through a peach basket . . .
This is a game. Players grow up playing the game 10-12 hours per day. There is no such thing as exhaustion when a dedicated professional athlete is involved in the second overtime of a playoff game.
Let's start by reminding ourselves that the Celtics and Bulls are not digging ditches or carrying hods. Playing basketball is not as exhausting as working in a coal mine. It's not as mentally taxing as standing in a factory assembly line, trying to make the time pass, realizing it's still an hour and a half until the next cigarette/coffee break.
You want to hear the voice of exhaustion? Talk to a single, working parent of a sick child. Don't talk to Paul Pierce or Doc Rivers.
"Clearly, I'm not managing minutes," Rivers said Tuesday. "I'm playing guys 50 minutes. They're basketball players. That's what we do. You know? We get days off in between. Hell, we play all day. And that's our attitude. If we had to play guys 60 minutes, we'll do it. Hell, what else is there to do right now?"
Added Pierce, "When you're in the close games and it's the playoffs, it's mental, and you don't really think about it."
Sounds like Yogi, no? It's mental and you don't really think about it.
Rivers reminds us that these are conditioned athletes, not weekend warriors.
