When Isaiah Thomas made his first return to Boston earlier this month following his trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Celtics wanted to honour their former star with a video tribute.

But because he was not scheduled to play, Thomas kindly asked his former team to delay this until his next visit to TD Garden in February.

The C's were happy to oblige but the next time the two teams meet in Beantown, the organisation is already planning to honour a legend.

The team will be retiring the number 34 jersey of Paul Pierce and he publicly took exception to IT possibly receiving a tribute on the same night.

Pierce made it clear that he felt the night belonged to him and he didn't want to share it with anybody.

The former NBA champion explained to ESPN that he had a discussion with general manager Danny Ainge to make his point.

"Danny and I talked about it for 40 minutes," Pierce said. "He told me, 'This is what we have planned,' and at the end of the conversation, he said, 'If you don't want us to do Isaiah, we won't.' So I told him, 'I really don't.' So that was it. That's how we left it."

The former Celtics small forward will now get his wish as Isaiah has instructed his old team to scrap any plans to give him a video tribute.

The point guard took to Twitter to explain his decision:

Before the tweet by Thomas, Pierce explained why he objected to Boston's initial plans.

"(Thomas) had a shot to be honoured," Pierce said. "You came to Boston. Whether you are playing or not, you should have had your tribute then. I just don't see how, if someone is having a jersey retirement, they're going to be running other tributes for other players.

"Danny tried to sell me on it, but I told him, 'He had a shot, Danny, and he punked you on it. He pretty much dictated everything.' They let it happen because they felt sorry how (the trade to Cleveland) went down. It's guilt. That's what it is."

Ainge explained that IT always intended to make this choice after learning of Pierce's feelings towards it and he says it wasn't their intention to rain on his parade.

"I wanted to make it clear that it was never my intention or Isaiah's intention to take away from the special day for Paul Pierce," Ainge told ESPN. "And no one was ever comparing I.T. to Paul Pierce. We all owe Paul a lot. Everyone in the organisation."

So as he wanted, February 11 will belong to Pierce and he will see his jersey hanging from the rafters and enjoy one of the best individual honours as a player.

"We owe Paul a lot," Ainge said. "I feel indebted to him. The whole organisation feels that way. We will have a great night for him. Argument over."