The sentence alone doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue: “Paul Pierce has scored more points donning Celtic green than Larry Bird.” But it’s true for The Truth. He is now second all-time behind only John Havlicek.
And to think, about a decade ago, many believed Antoine Walker to be the better of the two players and the one who would lead Boston to the promised land. While Walker is still trying to scrape up some loose change in the D-League, Pierce is still playing at a high level. Long before Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett made their way to Massachusetts during the same offseason several years ago, I always thought Paul Pierce to be a grossly underrated player. That was primarily because he always played on losing teams. But when the Big 3 was formed, his talents were front and center and he finally got the loved he was owed.
Despite him surpassing Bird, many still don’t think he’s a top 5 or even top 10 Celtic of all-time. I’m not sure how that makes any sense considering he has scored the second most points and won the franchise a championship. If those aren’t the criteria, then what is? The man is a top 5 Celtic all-time and that’s not debatable. Here’s the bucket that did it:
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