Sunk History: Before Paul Pierce was the NBA Finals MVP, he was the trash-talking 'Truth' of a generation
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, with the NBA’s future still so uncertain, we look again to the past, polishing up our Dunk History series — with a twist. If you are in need of a momentary distraction from the state of an increasingly isolated world, remember with us some of the most electrifying baskets and improbable buckets in the game’s history, from buzzer-beaters to circus shots. This is Sunk History.
Today, we revisit the trash-talking legend of Paul Pierce, as seen through Al Harrington’s eyes.
[Dunk History, collected: Our series on the most scintillating slams of yesteryear]
I get the feeling people either forget or did not pay attention to how good Paul Pierce was before Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined his Boston Celtics in 2008 and the trio resurrected a historic franchise in peril.
It makes you wonder why they think he is known as “The Truth,” if they know how early in his career Shaquille O’Neal gave him that nickname. It was 2001, when Pierce scored 42 points on 19 shots in a road win over the best of the Shaq-and-Kobe Los Angeles Lakers dynasty, before the first of Pierce’s 10 All-Star appearances and amid his 82-game campaign that began a month after he was nearly stabbed to death.
“My name is Shaquille O'Neal and Paul Pierce is the motherf---ing 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.”
Flash forward to the first round of the 2003 playoffs, when a 25-year-old Pierce was hungry for more after nearly leading a thin Celtics roster to the Finals a season prior. They were sixth seeds this time, underdogs against an Indiana Pacers team that was in the midst of four conference finals appearances in seven years.
The Celtics led the series 2-1, thanks in large part to Pierce scoring Boston’s final 12 points en route to a game-high 40 in a 103-100 Game 1 victory on the road. His Celtics were at home in Game 4, trailing by 16 points a minute into the third quarter when Pierce went supernova. He outscored the Pacers 21-10 on 7-of-8 shooting down the stretch in the third, and his last of three 3-pointers in the frame was the icing.
Pierce had been jawing with swingman Al Harrington for much of the night. With the shot clock off, he dribbled across midcourt carrying on an animated discussion with Harrington. Indiana’s All-Defensive stud Ron Artest tried to switch onto Pierce before he went in for the final kill, but Harrington shoved Artest aside. Harrington’s length and athleticism made him fully capable defensively when engaged, and man was he engaged, crouching into a wide defensive stance, as Pierce bent to meet him for some heated trash talk.
Referee Joe DeRosa stepped between them mid-play to call off the conversation, so Pierce pointed to his spot on the floor and pulled up for three over the 6-foot-9 Harrington’s outstretched arms with five seconds left. The call from longtime Celtics play-by-play man Mike Gorman made the moment all the more lethal.
“Pierce,” said Gorman in the gravelly voice he gets when excited. “Buries it. Right in Harrington’s face.”
“I was caught up in the moment,” Pierce said afterward, forgetting exactly what he said to Harrington in the heat of battle. “That's what playoff basketball is all about, two guys competing at the highest level.”
Harrington sure remembered.
“He was just saying, ‘I hope you’re ready,’” he told reporters in the aftermath of an ultimate defeat. “I was saying, ‘I’m ready, bring it.’ I was hoping he drove. He took the step-back shot and I just couldn’t get to it.”
That shot gave the Celtics a 73-62 lead en route to a 10-point win. Pierce finished with 37 points.
“I was down in my stance,” Harrington added in the postgame, “and he said: ‘That ain’t gonna do nothing. Here I come, here I come.’ And it didn’t do nothing because he made that three. I did all I could do because I fouled him and he still made the shot. That was just a great shot. That showed that he was on fire.”
Pierce finished off the Pacers at home two games later with a 27-8-4 that polished off the playoff upset.
“Part of trash-talking is backing it up, and I would say [Pierce’s] level of trash-talking is about the doing and him telling you what he’s about to do,” future Celtics teammate Kevin Garnett, who along with Tony Allen later called Pierce the best trash-talker they ever played with or against, said later in a recap of Pierce’s dagger. “You hear these tales about Larry Bird, like, ‘Hey, I’m coming down here, and I’m fixing to shoot the three right in your face.’ Well, our generation, that was Paul Pierce. ‘Hey, I’m fixing to shoot this right in your face. You ready? Three, two, one, nothing you can do about it.’ You know? Ask Al Harrington. He knows.”
That play is legendary for a sect of post-Michael Jordan and pre-LeBron James players. Ask Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, who broached the subject with Pierce on their “All the Smoke” podcast last month.
Pierce: “People don’t even know. People think Paul Pierce just started playing in the playoffs. I had some big playoff games that the social media era don’t even know about. I ended up in a close-out game versus [Allen] Iverson and had 46 in that one. I had some big games and intense series versus Indiana.”
Barnes: “I think you hit it on the head, because it was pre-social media. To me, you’re one of the top five closer, clutch motherf---ing players of all-time. You embraced, Give me the ball at the end, and I’m gonna to make this motherf---ing shot. If it’s the biggest game, I’m gonna drop 40. That’s what you were known for to people who really knew hoop.”
[...]
Jackson: “I wish I would’ve been there the year you were talking to Al [Harrington] and drained it after you whispered like 30 sweet-nothings to him. ‘Look, I’m fixing to go this way, I’m going to pull up, and we’re fixing to get up on out of here.’ You were telling him what you were about to do.”
Barnes: “That’s king s---.”
Pierce: “That’s when the league was real. You don’t see that no more.”
This right here, all of it, is why Pierce was my all-time favorite player. The dude got stabbed before the season and ended it with one of the great talk-the-talk, walk-the-walk moments in NBA history. The hero’s arc of his career is practically unparalleled. He entered the league in the post-Jordan lockout, led the Celtics to their first Eastern Conference finals since the Bird era by Year 4 and slogged through a few losing seasons — enduring endless criticism — before restoring the franchise to glory with Garnett and Ray Allen.
Never forget that before the Finals MVP, Pierce was still the “Truth”, carrying a team that started Antoine Walker, Tony Delk, Walter McCarty and Tony Battie to playoff victories. Keep that in mind when you think about guys like Tracy McGrady and Russell Westbrook, who never won a series as their teams’ best player.
This is why the Draymond Green trash talk a few years back struck a chord with me. Pierce never asked for a farewell tour, never compared his swan song to Kobe Bryant’s. And people do love him like that. Even Bryant called Pierce one of the toughest players he ever had to guard. He learned the hard way in the 2008 playoffs, as did LeBron James. If you’re going to talk, be prepared to back it up. Pierce did more than most.
More Sunk History:
• Michael Jordan puts it all on the line and wins big with ‘The Shot’
• When Stephen Curry redefined what it meant to shoot from deep
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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
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