Doc Rivers admits what the world knows

“That’s right,” he said with a laugh. “I get booed because I suck.”

Besides that obvious statement, Doc made a few other good points in the article (more) Rivers addressed the comments made by Michael Wilbon this offseason that why Kevin Garnett, Shawn Marion and others have been adamant about not coming to Boston is because of Boston’s alleged racism.

“Well, I think that’s the old opinion of Boston,” he said. “You know, it was in Bill Russell’s book years ago, but that’s changed obviously – and it’s good that it’s changing. But sometimes change happens first and the perception (changing) happens second.”

As the Garnett talks showed, the Celtics must also recruit players in trades. And when it was reported that Garnett, Shawn Marion and Jermaine O’Neal did not want to play in Boston, Wilbon reasoned it was about more than basketball.

“I just don’t see it that way, and I’ll talk to Michael about it if I run into him,” Rivers said. “I don’t think it’s right that players who don’t know what it’s really like in Boston are shaping what people think.

“What’s more important is that most of the guys who have come here want to stay. To me, that’s important. Those are the guys who actually know what the situation is. I mean, did Antoine Walker want to leave? No. Paul Pierce [stats] wants to be a Celtic for life. Gary Payton we traded away and he begged to get back. Allen Iverson [stats] wanted to come to Boston. So that doesn’t sound like a place with a race problem to me.

Rivers is right. It is an asinine thought to consider Boston still racist, as some of the most popular players in this town are black. I see jerseys of black boston players everywhere I go. Pierce, Seymour, Troy Brown, Al Jefferson, Rodney Harrison are all insanely popular as were Antoine, Deion Branch, Willie McGinest, Ty Law, Mo Vaughn, Robert Parrish, Corey Dillon and countless others when they played here.

KG and Marion didn’t want to play here because we flat out stunk last year.