#34 Paul Pierce, “The Truth,” Small Forward, 1998-2013
Born in Oakland, California in 1977, Paul Pierce grew up in Inglewood, California, in Los Angeles County. Naturally, Pierce grew up rooting for the Los Angeles Lakers and hating the Boston Celtics. As a junior in high school, Pierce first showed signs of becoming a great player. As a senior in 1995, Pierce won the California Mr. Basketball award and played in the McDonald’s All-American game with the likes of Vince Carter and future teammate Kevin Garnett. Pierce went on to attend the University of Kansas from 1995 to 1998, and in 1997 he helped Kansas win the Big 12 Conference Tournament. He was First Team All-American in 1998, and his number “34” has been retired by the school.
Pierce was picked tenth overall by the Boston Celtics in the 1998 draft, joining the team in one of the worst stretches in its history. They hadn’t made the playoffs since 1995 and hadn’t won a playoff series since 1992. Their last championship came in 1986 and the glory days years were now long gone; Larry Bird had retired in ‘92 and Kevin McHale in ‘93. The Celtics star shooting guard, Reggie Lewis, passed away at 27 during the ‘93 off-season from a heart condition, and Robert Parish moved on to the Charlotte Hornets in 1994.
There were seeds of promise though, as power forward Antoine Walker had joined the team in ‘96, and was an All-Star the year before Pierce’s arrival. Shooting guard Ron Mercer joined the league the year before Pierce and was was averaging 17 points a game during Pierce’s rookie season. For his part, Paul averaged 16.5 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals in his first year, and made All-Rookie First Team in ‘99. Mercer left following that season, and although Pierce steadily improved, the team didn’t make the playoffs until 2002.
In what could’ve easily been a fatal off the court incident, Pierce was stabbed eleven times in a Boston night club on September 25th, 2000. His life was saved at Tufts-New England Medical Center and he went on to play all 82 games of the 2000-01 season. He later donated 2.5 million dollars to the hospital.
In 2001, he was nicknamed “The Truth” by Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal after Pierce dropped 42 points on one of the best ever Lakers teams in a losing effort, hitting 13 of 19 from the field. The Celtics were finally back in the playoffs in 2002, and faced the New Jersey Nets in the Conference Finals. With the series tied 1-1, the Celtics were getting blown out at home in game three with the score at 74 to 53 after three quarters. It was all Boston in the fourth though, with the Celtics outscoring the Nets 41 to 16 and winning the game 94 to 90 in one of the greatest playoff comebacks of all time. Pierce alone scored 19 in the fourth. Unfortunately, Jason Kidd and the Nets went on win the next three games and the series.
Antoine Walker left the team after the ‘03 season, and in ‘06 and ‘07, the team would miss the playoffs again. The low point was the 2007 season, in which Pierce was only able to play 47 games due to injuries and the team went 24 and 58, their worst mark since the train wreck that was ‘96-97. Things turned around in a hurry though as the team traded for two star players. The first was Ray Allen, one of the league’s best shooters, who came from the Seattle SuperSonics. The second was power forward Kevin Garnett, traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves, where Kevin McHale was serving as GM. Garnett was generally considered the best active player without a championship at the time. He went on to win Defensive Player of the Year in his first season with the team, and so far is the only Celtic to do so. The ‘07-08 team also featured young point guard Rajon Rondo, who joined the team the year before, and point guard Eddie House coming off the bench. The team proved to be one of the greatest in Celtics history, winning 66 games, just one shy of the legendary ‘86 team.
The playoffs were no cakewalk though, with the first two rounds going to seven games, first against the underdog Atlanta Hawks, then vs. LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They went on to beat the Detroit Pistons in six before arriving in the NBA Finals against their classic rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics won the first two games at home, before dropping game three in LA. In game four, the Celtics staged an amazing comeback akin to the one they’d gutted out against New Jersey in 2002. The Lakers led by 24 points early in the third quarter, but the Celtics wound up out-scoring them 31 to 15 in the third and 26 to 18 in the fourth, winning the game 97 to 91, stunning the LA crowd and giving them a 3-1 series lead. However, the Lakers won game five and the series shifted back to Boston. The Celtics ended the series decisively in game six, destroying the Lakers by nearly forty points, 131 to 92. It was their first Championship in 22 years; previously, the longest gap between titles had been just five. Pierce was named MVP of the Finals, having racked up 21.8 points, 6.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game in the series.
The Celtics seemed likely to repeat in 2009, but lost one of their best players when Kevin Garnett was injured in February and he did not return for the playoffs. The Celtics won 62 games despite the loss of Garnett, but would lose to the Orlando Magic in seven in the second round. In 2010 the Celtics won 50 games and then surprised many by making it back to the NBA Finals. They beat the Miami Heat in five in the first round, and again bounced LeBron James and the number one seeded Cavaliers in the semifinals in six games. It’s speculated that the Cavs’ second loss to Boston led to James’ decision to sign with Miami. The Celtics beat the Magic in six in the Conference Finals before facing the Lakers in the Finals for the second time in three years. The Lakers were the favorites going in, but the Celtics took it all the way to a seventh game in Los Angeles. The Celtics led 23 to 14 after the first quarter but wound up losing 83 to 79. The Lakers were aided by getting 37 free throw attempts to the Celtics’ 17. The Celtics’ starting center Kendrick Perkins getting injured in game six may have been the deciding factor, as the Celtics were out-rebounded 53 to 40 in the final game.
In 2011, the Celtics lost to the Miami Heat in the second round of the playoffs in five games, as Miami had recently added LeBron James and Chris Bosh to a lineup that already included Dwayne Wade. In 2012, the Celtics made it back to the Conference Finals but again lost to the Heat, this time in seven, and Miami would go on to win the NBA Championship. 2013 would be Pierce’s last year with the Celtics. Ray Allen had left the team after the 2012 season, and Pierce and Garnett were now in their mid 30s. Still, they made it to the playoffs one more time in green, but lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
That off-season, Pierce and Garnett were traded to the Brooklyn Nets along with Jason Terry and D.J. White in a trade that turned out to be very lopsided in Boston’s favor. The Celtics received five players along with four first round picks, two of which were used to draft Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum with a third being traded to Cleveland as part of the deal that brought star point guard Kyrie Irving to the Celtics for two seasons.
In Pierce’s one season with the Nets, they reached the second round of the playoffs but couldn’t make it past the star-studded Heat. The next year Pierce played for the Washington Wizards, but lost in the second round again, this time to the Atlanta Hawks. In 2015, Pierce began playing for the Los Angeles Clippers, and for the first time in his career was coming off the bench. The Clippers made it to the playoffs in ‘16 and ‘17, but never past the first round.
Pierce retired in 2017 and his number “34” was retired by the Boston Celtics in 2018. He currently sits at number one all time among Celtics in three pointers made with 1,823, almost twice as many as Antoine Walker, who’s in second place with over 900. He’s also number one in steals, just ahead of Larry Bird, number two in points, behind only John Havlicek, and third in minutes played and games played. He’s also fourth in blocked shots, fifth in assists and seventh in rebounds. He served as team captain from 2000 until his departure in 2013. His career highs include 26.8 points per game in ‘05-06 and shooting over 41% from three point range in both his rookie year and again in ‘09-10. He scored a career high of fifty points in a February 2006 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Pierce also made All-NBA Second Team in 2009 and Third Team in ‘02, ‘03 and ‘08. He was an All-Star an impressive ten times; every year from 2002 to 2012 with the exception of 2007, when he missed out due to injuries.
Since his retirement, he’s worked on television as a basketball analyst. Paul Pierce has undoubtedly been the greatest Celtic to emerge since the end of the original big three era and should be a lock for the Hall of Fame.
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