Lance Stephenson Goes Coast-to-Coast on the Knicks, Goes Right Through Raymond Felton 
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Watch Klay Thompson Get Buckets in High School Paul Pierce, Larry Bird & The Lies Nostalgia Told You
Paul Pierce, Dime #5
Athletes tell lies. Agents tell damn lies. And sportswriters use statistics.
It’s been three long weeks since Paul Pierce eased on by Larry Bird on the Boston Celtics career scoring list and tucked comfortably behind John Havlicek into second place – a moment that, although hastily swept away in the avalanche that is/was Linsanity, still marks the high point of Boston’s so-far sluggish Atlantic Division title defense.
Midway through his 14th NBA season, Pierce has scored 21,921 points officially, plus another 2,351 in the playoffs. And although Boston coach Doc Rivers and Pierce himself led the chorus of voices attributing too much of Pierce’s feat to longevity and not enough to skill, there’s no reason to throw any asterisks or proverbial wet blankets on what the man has done.
But because it’s 2012 and every sports achievement must be ranked five seconds after it’s been filed, the celebration for Pierce was cut short just so some media types (professional and social) could needlessly remind the world that scoring more points than Bird does not mean Pierce is better than Bird. That in fact, Pierce orbits nowhere near the same planet on which Bird and his legacy reside in basketball lore.
It’s a lie. A damn lie.
Now I won’t sit here and claim Pierce is a better player than Bird was. I don’t believe that. But I do believe that the gap between the two generation-defining Celtics is not as cavernous as many people – writers, TV analysts, fans, ex-players, Bird devotees and Cheers patrons – would have you believe.
I only wish I could use more than statistics to pose a strong argument. For a moment, though, consider this:
In 13 seasons playing with a rotating cast of Hall of Fame teammates – from Dave Cowens and Tiny Archibald in his rookie year to Kevin McHale and Robert Parish during his farewell tour – Bird won three NBA championships (with two Finals MVPs). After he turned 30, Bird never made it back to the Finals.
Pierce has played on teams with multiple future Hall of Famers – Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O’Neal and Rajon Rondo (don’t count him out yet) – during just four of his 13 full seasons, not counting this one. In those four years, Pierce won one NBA championship and copped Finals MVP. He was 30 years old then, and led Boston to the Finals at 32.
So in other words, when Pierce has been surrounded by a championship-caliber team – a luxury Bird enjoyed for essentially his entire career – he has proven to be just as successful a winner as Larry Legend. And while I hate to use “if” in situations like this, isn’t it reasonable to believe that if Pierce had played with the likes of KG and Allen for the bulk of his 20s, he’d have a couple more championship rings?
Pierce has career averages of 22.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists. Bird averaged 24.3 points, 10.0 rebounds and 6.3 assists in his day. In his best season (2001-02), Pierce was good for 26.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists, hitting 44 percent from the field, 40 percent from three-point range and 80 percent from the free-throw line. In his best season (’84-85), Bird was good for 28.7 points, 10.5 boards and 6.6 assists, hitting 52 percent from the field, 42 percent from three and 88 percent from the line.
Stay with me now…
So if we put two small forwards head-to-head in an NBA game, and one of them went for 24-10-6 while the other one posted 22-6-3, would you say that Player A dominated Player B? Of course not. If the matchup ended 28-10-6 to 26-6-3, would you call it a blowout? I doubt it.
But try to suggest any scenario other than Pierce getting completely and utterly eviscerated by Bird head-to-head and see how your audience reacts. Some of your more fervent types will claim that Bird could outplay Pierce right now, with Larry creaking around at 55 and Pierce still playing at an All-Star level.
For his part, Bird recently went on record about Pierce to the Boston Herald: “He’s a great scorer, and he won a championship, so he’s right there with the rest of us, as far as I’m concerned.”
Then there’s Hall of Fame basketball writer Bob Ryan, who called Pierce the greatest scoring machine in Celtics history four years before Pierce passed Bird’s point total. In Sean Sweeney’s Dime #62 feature on Pierce from 2011, Ryan said, “Havlicek ran without the ball. He wasn’t a one-on-one player. Larry had guys that could guard him and make him take shots that he didn’t want to take and at times, keep him from getting the ball. That was a fact. Pierce, you don’t have any recollections of that. If he wants the ball, he gets the ball. He gets it. You can clear out with him very confidently. He can get at the very least a reasonable shot, at the best, a great shot for him. If he doesn’t, he has a chance to get to the free throw line because that’s his other option, which he is great at. What more do you want?”
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