Mayo on Celtics: ‘I don't care about the banners'

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The news that the Celtics had deals in place to trade both Ray Allen and Paul Pierce at the deadline can't be surprising . . . but the reasons they fell apart might be.

Celtics analyst, and ex-UConn and NBA star, Donny Marshall said O.J. Mayo, who was coming to Boston in the Allen trade (the proposal was Mayo and a draft choice for Allen), scuttled things by making it clear Boston held no appeal to him.

"On the Memphis side, O.J. Mayo was the guy who pretty much said, 'It really doesn't interest me to be a Boston Celtic,' " Marshall told Carolyn Manno on Wednesday night's 'Sports Net Central'. "I think what he was told was, 'Think about the banners. Think about the history of this team,the legacy.' And O.J. Mayo basically said, 'I don't care about banners.'

"And that's how the players think today. It's not about the banners; it's about 'Where can I win? Where can I get paid the most?' "

As for the Nets deal -- Pierce for Mehmet Okur and a lottery pick -- Marshall said it was a proposal pushed by the Celtics but rejected by New Jersey.

"On the other side, the GM for the New Jersey Nets, from what I was told, said, 'I can't take Paul Pierce in this deal,' " said Maarshall. "That deal -- at least from the people I talked to with the Nets organization -- was a move from our side, from the Celtics side, that kind of was pushing that movement along to get Paul Pierce there . . . " But Marshall said the notion of acquiring a Celtics legend made the Nets uneasy, and they backed off.

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