You've heard the story before.

How Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen all traveled to Michigan with Doc Rivers and owner Wyc Grousbeck to recruit four-time All-Star Rasheed Wallace.

But what you might not have heard is exactly what happened in that meeting. Rivers revealed yesterday on WEEI's Dennis & Callahan show what happened in that fateful meeting in Michigan.

"I started out talking to him, then Danny [Ainge] joined in," Rivers said. "Wyc left the room and went to talk to the agent. It was just me and the three players, and I really backed out of it. I let the players do the talking. Kevin, as you know, led the talking and was very powerful in what he was saying about team and our goals.

"And Ray and Paul were just as good. So, I didn't have to do much, Danny didn't have to do much, Wyc didn't have to do much. I think the players sold Rasheed on the Celtics."

Wallace said that having Boston's Big Three there showed him how much the Celtics really wanted him.

Before then, he was considering playing for Orlando and San Antonio as well.

"I thought the [recruiting] trip was really important," Rivers said. "I thought it was needed by us. Rasheed was going to take visits to San Antonio and to Orlando. He had them planned. Our thought going into this was, 'We can't let him get on that plane.' You know, you go there, it's warm, no state taxes in ether place . . . I just thought we had to make a great impact on him. And I can tell you when I left the meeting that day, I thought we had him. But you're still worried until he actually signs a contract."

Rivers knew that Wallace was a gifted player and that his teammates loved him. Other than that, he didn't know much about the talented forward/center.

"He's always been a great teammate," Rivers said. "He's one of the more verbal talkers on defense in the league -- him and Kevin [Garnett]. And it's amazing. During camp, I have a lot of college coaches come in and they watch camp. And that's the one thing they keep saying is -- well, there's two things: 'Boy, your bigs have a chance to be really good.' The second thing is, 'I've never seen a team talk as much on defense, especially Rasheed, Perk [Kendrick Perkins] and Kevin.'

"So, those are the things they'll notice. But they'll love him. I'm sure there will be a couple of nights where he'll get into an exchange with someone else in stripes, and we're going to have to deal with that. But that's not going to be an issue, in my opinion."

roblee@projo.com