Paul Pierce Wants to Experience Free Agency

Paul Pierce, after giving away awards and working with kids at his annual basketball camp at Basketball City near TD Garden, continued to discuss the Celtics and his personal future:

About his contract, which has a team option for 2013-14: “I think I am going to play this one out. I want to see what it feels like to be a free agent for once in my life. I think I am going to play this one out. A lot can change in two years. My body (may not) be where I want it to be, I could retire, a lot of things could happen. It’s not about the money at this point. I love the game. I made as much money as I possibly can. It’s about winning a championship and if I feel like it’s the right thing to do.

If he uncomfortable with the team option?: “Not at all. I mean if they don’t want me back, I feel like I’m good enough and I’ll be wanted by a lot of teams. I’m coming into this year and I just made another all-star team at 34. So I’m still feel like I’m playing at a great level.”

Doc Rivers to Blame For Allen Leaving?

In his first lengthy and candid interview on the circumstances since Allen spurned a two-year, $12 million offer to sign with the Heat in July, Rivers told Yahoo! Sports that his decisions to relegate Allen to a sixth-man role and give point guard Rajon Rondo complete freedom with the ball and leadership were ultimately what helped lead Allen to leave Boston.

Allen, a future Hall of Fame guard, left the Celtics full of acrimony and disillusionment, ending a spectacular five-year run with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce as Boston’s Big Three. Allen signed a two-year, $6 million deal with the Heat.

“People can use all the Rondo stuff – and it was there, no doubt about that – but it was me more than Rondo,” said Rivers, who is working as an NBC analyst during the Olympics. “I’m the guy who gave Rondo the ball. I’m the guy who decided that Rondo needed to be more of the leader of the team. That doesn’t mean guys liked that – and Ray did not love that – because Rondo now had the ball all the time.

Roy Never Wanted to Officially Retire

Brandon Roy’s retirement from the NBA last year wasn’t intended as a final decision.

The Minnesota Timberwolves were eager to help him clarify his status.

“After a few months of sitting out, I decided, ‘Hey, I don’t want to stop playing basketball,’ ” Roy said Tuesday at a news conference at Target Center after signing a two-year, $10.4 million contract. “I wanted to continue going forward. It was never a situation where I said, ‘I’m done forever.’ It’s just more of a pause.”

The Portland Trail Blazers announced Roy’s medical-related retirement right before the start of the lockout-shortened season last year. His knees, lacking cartilage after six operations, were bothering him too much to continue. Roy said Tuesday, though, that the team doctor advised him to quit. The Blazers used the amnesty clause to waive Roy and not count the remaining $63 million on his contract against their salary cap or luxury tax.

“It was never really officially my decision to retire,” Roy said.

Diogu Using Olympics to get Back to NBA

(Ike) Diogu came to the Olympics looking for a single person: that one NBA general manager who will give him another chance, a real chance, to play at the highest level. He never thought he’d inspire a country.

The son of Nigerian schoolteachers, Diogu led the D’Tigers to stunning upsets of Greece and Lithuania at a qualifying tournament in Venezuela. For an encore, his 25-point, 10-rebound performance against the Dominican Republic clinched Nigeria’s first-ever Olympic berth in basketball.

Once here, it didn’t take long for Diogu’s crew to score a first Olympic victory, beating Tunisia in its London debut. Do you believe in miracles?

“When we first got together, we talked about making history,” Diogu said. “My brother lives in Nigeria, and he said the place is just going crazy. With all the turmoil going on over there, this gives the country something to rally around. Our soccer team didn’t make it, so we’re the team everyone is riding on.”

Raptors Re-Sign Center Aaron Gray

The Toronto Raptors announced Friday they have re-signed centre Aaron Gray. Per team policy, financial details were not disclosed.

Gray averaged 3.9 points, with career bests of 5.7 rebounds (third on team) and 16.6 minutes in 49 games with the Raptors last season. He started 40 contests, averaging 4.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 17.4 minutes. Gray finished the season second on the club in field goal percentage at .516 (83-161). He paced the team in rebounding 11 times, with six 10-plus rebound efforts, and recorded two double-doubles. He posted season highs with 12 points and 12 rebounds February 22 versus Detroit.

Gray played for the New Orleans Hornets in the 2010-11 season, averaging 3.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 13.0 minutes. He shot .566 (56-99) from the field in his 41 appearances, including six in a starting role. He started six consecutive games from February 5-15, averaging 6.1 points, 8.0 rebounds and 25.8 minutes.

Gray, 7-foot, 270 pounds, was a second-round selection (49th overall) by Chicago in the 2007 NBA Draft. He was dealt by the Bulls to the Hornets in January 2010.

Gray posted his career highs against the Raptors on April 16, 2008 with a 19-point/22-rebound performance for the Bulls.

Gray played four seasons collegiately at the University of Pittsburgh. He was named Big East Most Improved Player in 2005-06, upping his scoring and rebound averages from 4.3 points and 2.8 rebounds as a sophomore to 13.9 points and 10.5 rebounds in his junior season. He was an All-Big East First Team selection as a senior, posting averages of 13.9 points and 9.5 rebounds.

Raja Bell Buyout Saga Continues

The Raja Bell saga goes on.

The Salt Lake Tribune learned Monday that Bell has not accepted a buyout with the Jazz, despite the veteran guard saying July 8 a verbal agreement had been reached between the sides and only formalities remained.

“We’ve been given the greenlight by Utah to go ahead and find something that works for us. We’ve agreed to the terms,” Bell said in July. “So I think it’s safe to say now we are in the market again and we’re entertaining our options at this point.”

Jazz General Manager Kevin O’Connor would not discuss Bell’s buyout when recently asked about the situation during Summer League in Orlando, Fla. But a league source confirmed Monday the Jazz have officially offered Bell a buyout. He has refused to accept the deal, though, stalling an already long-delayed process.

Lakers to Switch to Princeton Offense?

Kobe Bryant has been searching for spacing and freedom and flow on offense, for a way to counter defenses bent on sagging and suffocating him on the floor. Even before the Los Angeles Lakers delivered him point guard Steve Nash, Bryant had raised an idea with coach Mike Brown about the possibility of employing a distant cousin to the triangle – the Princeton offense.

So there was Brown and Bryant in a side room in a Las Vegas gymnasium during Team USA’s training camp in early July, listening to Eddie Jordan detail the offense’s intricacies, laying out how Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum would benefit with and without the basketball. Here was an old-school Ivy League blueprint daring to be a solution for the Showtime Lakers’ issues.

Jordan happens to be the foremost Princeton authority in the NBA, the heir to architect Pete Carril, and that’s an immense part of why the Lakers are moving toward an agreement to hire Jordan as an assistant coach. Jordan sold his vision of the offense to a most willing subject, and ultimately Bryant departed for these Olympics convinced that the Lakers have a sound plan of action for the 2012-13 season.