Celtics
“After I give it some thought, I am simply saying, I have to be on this dialog.”
Paul Pierce is a Corridor of Famer in his personal proper.
However the Celtics legend and 2008 NBA Finals MVP additionally has a monitor file of stealing headlines through some lofty proclamations and ill-advised feedback.
Since changing into a TV pundit, Pierce has gone viral after declaring a Celtics’ victory over the Knicks in the course of the 2025 Jap Convention Semifinals — whereas additionally crediting himself as being “accountable” for serving to LeBron James reach his “next level” after a number of playoff conferences towards the Cavaliers and Warmth.
However “The Fact” actually turned heads final week throughout an look on FS1’s “Communicate.” Throughout a phase the place the panel mentioned James’ feedback about how the NBA “hasn’t had a scorer as geared up” as Kevin Durant, Pierce doled out a daring declare about his personal offensive arsenal.
“I used to be in all probability one of the best pure scorer within the historical past of the league, as a result of I used to be fairly geared up,” Pierce mentioned on FS1. “After I give it some thought, I’m simply saying, I have to be on this dialog.”
Pierce was a standout participant all through his profession within the NBA, averaging 19.7 factors per sport throughout 19 seasons. Past having the ability to rating within the paint and sink mid-range photographs, Pierce was additionally able to drilling photographs from 3-point vary.
Nonetheless, rating Pierce over as different offensive standouts like James, Durant, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar looks as if an train solely carried out by Pierce himself.
Despite the fact that Pierce had many strikes in his toolkit when it got here to scoring, his highest-scoring season was in 2005-06 when he averaged 26.8 factors per sport — with the ahead by no means successful a scoring title in his profession.
Pierce’s resume speaks for itself relating to his spot in Springfield as one of many high gamers of his era.
However there’s not lots of reality to his claims that he has a stronger offensive skillset than the likes of James, Durant, Jordan, and others.
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