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FRIDAY,SEPTEMBER 23,2011
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SPECIAL SERIES
Sept. 12: Larry Brown, Ted Owens
Sept. 12: Larry Brown, Ted Owens
Sept. 13: Greg Ostertag, Scot Pollard
Sept. 14: Nick Bradford, Jeff Graves, Jeff Hawkins, Ron Kellogg, Ryan Robertson, Billy Thomas
Sept. 15: Xavier Henry, Josh Selby
Sept. 16: Wayne Simien, Darnell Valentine
Sept. 19: Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson, Julian Wright
Sept. 20: Cole Aldrich, Nick Collison
Yesterday: Marcus and Markieff Morris
Today: Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush
Today: Paul Pierce
THE TRUTH, THE LEGEND
MAX ROTHMAN
MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Shaq spoke those words on March 13, 2001, not even six months after Pierce was stabbed 11 times in a Boston night club, minutes after he dropped 42 points on the Los Angeles Lakers, his favorite team as a kid. The Celtics lost that night 112-107, but that's not what people remember. Since that game, from California to Massachusetts, there is one justifiable truth, and his name is Paul Pierce.
“Take this down. My name is Shaquille O'Neal, and Paul Pierce is the mother---- truth. Quote me on that, and don't take nothing out. I knew he could play, but I didn't know he could play like this. Paul Pierce is the truth.”
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
It all started at the playgrounds of Inglewood, Calif., where Pierce grew up emulating his idol, Magic Johnson. Pierce took his basketball and dribbled down Crenshaw Blvd., past junkies who scratch and gangs tongtats gats, evading cracks in sidewalks, keeping his head up and his basketball away from cars zooming by. When he finally got to the park, he played with whoever showed until the sun went down. This is how he formed his game. Never the strongest nor the fastest, Pierce has always used his creativity to score. The playgrounds were his labs for experimentation. Allen Fieldhouse and the parquet floor at the Boston Garden showcased the summation of his past.
Paul Pierce
AT KANSAS
YEARS: 1995-1998
ACCOLADES
- NBA Champion (2008)
• **13 NBA All-Star Game selections**
• First team All-American (1998)
• Big Eight Freshman of the Year (1996)
• Big 12 Conference Tournament MVP (1997,1998)
• Eighth in Kansas school history with 1,768 points
His jersey number, 34, hangs in the rafters of All-
BEFORE KANSAS
As a senior in high school, Pierce was the No.1 prospect in California and a McDonald's All-American alongside Vince Carter, Antwan Jamison, Stephon Marbury and future teammate Kevin Garnett. Pierce was impressed with former Kansas coach Roy Williams' no-nonsense style and decided to become a Jayhawk. He joined future NBA players Jacque Vaughn, Scot Pollard and Raef LaFrentz and was named Big Eight Freshman of the Year in 1996, but Kansas fell to Syracuse 60-57 in the Elite Eight. In his sophomore season, Pierce and the Jayhawks jumped to a 22-0 start, and were No.1 in the AP polls for months. They were heavy favorites to reach the Final Four, but lost to Mike Bibby and the underdog Arizona Wildcats in the Sweet 16. The next year, Vaughn and Pollard were off to the NBA, but the team was no chump change with Pierce and LaFrentz still around. They entered the tournament as a No.1 seed, crushed Prairie View 110-52 in the opening round, but Rhode Island, a No.8 seed, upset Kansas by way of Cuttin Mobley's 27 points.
ON TO THE NBA
Pierce jumped to the league after his junior season, and the Celtics took him 10th overall in the 1998 NBA draft. Pierce has always been one of the better players in the NBA, but he spent years stuck in the standings' cellar. The Celtics never gave him a strong supporting cast, and trade rumors swirled around his name year after year. Then in 2007, general manager Danny Ainge traded for veteran stars Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, restoring the glory of the franchise with the most championships in NBA history. Allen and Garnett, like Pierce, never had strong enough supporting casts to truly contend. Now they were together, and "The Big Three" wanted nothing more than to finish their careers with a championship.
DEFINING MOMENT
"The Big Three," along with Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, James Posey and others immediately formed one of the better teams in the NBA. The Celtics reached the Eastern Conference semifinals, ready for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The series featured elite defense and went to seven games. In the final bout, Pierce and James could have settled the game one-on-one. That's essentially what it was. Pierce knocked down a jump shot. James followed with his own. Pierce hit another. Then James once more.
James scored 45 points, four more than his adversary, but Pierce won the game, and eventually the NBA Finals. It was the first Celtics championship since 1986, and it was sealed in a 131-92 blowout in Boston against you guessed it — the Lakers.
"It means so much more because these are the guys, the Havliceks, the Bill Russells, the Cousys," Pierce said. "These guys started what's going on with those banners. They don't hang up any other banners but champion- ship ones. And now I'm a part of it."
SOURCES: PAULPIERCE.NET, KUATHLETICS.COM, BASKETBALL-REFERENCE.COM, SPORTS-REFERENCE.COM, ESPN.COM.
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