WALTHAM, Mass. -- Amidst one of the craziest 24-hour stretches in league history, and one in which his own team was busy making a dizzying amount of roster transactions, Celtics coach Doc Rivers paused to put things in a little bit of perspective Friday night after Boston engaged in its first practice session of the season.

With news that Portland's Brandon Roy would retire at age 27 due to degenerative knees, Rivers opined that it was a shame his story was being overshadowed by all the other headlines around the league.

"I'm more sad for Brandon Roy, honestly," said Rivers. "[The Celtics' coaching staff was] talking about it today. Chris Paul is going to play basketball. Dwight [Howard] and all these guys are going to play basketball. I thought that was, unfortunately, lost today -- this report that [Roy] may retire. That is sad to me, because he won’t ever be able to do something he loves. And to me, I wish that’s what we all talked about today."

Instead, it was the nixed three-way Paul trade or the circus surrounding Howard that drew the most attention. Leave it to Rivers to put a humorous spin on the Paul situation.

"The CP3 thing almost threw me over the edge," said Rivers. "I thought, 'My God, first [NESN Red Sox reporter] Heidi [Watney] leaves to go to the Lakers, and then they get CP. What the heck?!' I didn't know how to respond to those two things... For a change, I went to bed early [on Thursday], so I woke up [Friday] thinking the [deal had gotten done]. When I got here, I didn't know [the trade had been vetoed]. I was like, the only guy on Earth -- I didn't know that happened. Everyone was saying, 'Did you see what happened?' And I said, 'Yeah, the Lakers pulled off an interesting deal.' Then I found out I was wrong."

While Rivers was careful when expressing opinions on the situations around the league, he did have a little fun with the Lakers situation. While discussing his own team's lack of a pure center, he pointed to some of the few teams with dominant big men around the league before noting, "I guess the Lakers are big. We're not sure. I thought they were going to be smaller."

When it was noted the Atlantic Division-rival New York Knicks got bigger with the addition of Tyson Chandler.

"The Knicks did get bigger, yeah they did," said Rivers. "That was a heck of a move for them."