J-Speaks: The Final Appearance At TD Garden For Future Hall of Famer

In the 1998 NBA draft, the Boston Celtics selected with the No. 10 overall pick a swingman (forward/guard) from Inglewood, CA who grew up a big-time fan of the team’s most hated rival the Los Angeles Lakers. In his 15 seasons with the team, he would become one of the very best in the history of the franchise setting many records, making many lasting memories, and leading them a title for the first time in a little over two decades. On Sunday, that game-changing player made his final appearance in TD Garden for the last time as he will retire at season’s end.

On Sunday afternoon, Los Angeles Clippers swingman Paul Pierce made his final appearance at Boston Garden as the team took on the Celtics on ABC. The future Hall of Famer, whose No. 34 will hang in the rafters of the TD Garden not to long after he retires, was in the starting lineup for just the seventh time this season and it was his first since New Year’s Eve.

What made this day even more special is that it marked the 18-year anniversary, Feb. 5, 1999 that Pierce made the first start of his NBA career. The 1998-99 campaign was the 50-game lock out shortened season.

Pierce played the first five minutes on the afternoon as the Celtics (33-18) outlasted the Clippers (31-20) 107-102.

Despite being chanted his name by the crowd in the closing moments, which was egged on by the Celtics cheerleaders and even Isaiah Thomas, who had 28 points on the evening, Pierce did not get off the bench until there was 19 seconds left. His only field goal on the afternoon was a three-pointer in the final moments that brought a roar of cheers from the audience.

“I’m glad I was able to cap it off,” Pierce said after the game. “At least I can say I put one last bucket in.

As the crowd filtered out of the arena to get to wherever they were going to catch the hometown New England Patriots, who overcame a 25-point deficit to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI 34-28 to win their fifth Super Bowl title, Pierce walked back out to the parquet floor, went to his knees, and kissed the leprechaun at center court.

“I knew I wanted to give Lucky one last kiss,” Pierce, who said that his 19^th season in the NBA will be final as he will retire at season’s end. “Lucky’s been through it all with me, the ups and downs. He helped me out on a couple of occasions.

One person who has seen up close some of the lows and highs of Pierce for nine of his 15 seasons with the Celtics is Clippers head coach Glenn “Doc Rivers,” who has coached him for a total with the Celtics and Clippers 11 years.

Rivers, who coached the Celtics from 2004-2013 started Pierce so he could have a fitting farewell, despite that the 39-year-old future Hall of Famer and 2008 NBA Finals MVP had not played in more than a month.

Before the game, Rivers told to his team to pay attention to the reception by those in attendance to their teammate.

 “When you finish your career, remember what’s going to happen in five minutes,” Rivers recalled telling him. “All of you aren’t going to be Hall of Famers, but just remember that when you finish your career, you’re empty and you can walk away with no regrets. That’s what Paul’s doing tonight.”

Rivers in bringing that point home to his team, flew the Clippers out from the Westcoast to Boston on Friday so that Pierce could soak it all in one final time before Sunday’s contest, which was chronicled and shown on the Sunday edition of NBA Countdown, presented by Straight Talk Wireless.

When the Clippers checked into their hotel on Friday evening, Pierce was greeted by fans, and he signed autographs. Many of them chanted his name and said thanks to him.

At practice, he got a chance to have a moment with one of his teammates during his time in Boston in forward Brandon Bass, who is current teammate with the Clippers.

He asked in a joking way to Bass what kind of reception does he expect to be given on Sunday at TD Garden. Bass’ answer, “Myself. I expect it to be quiet because you’re in the building.”

“There’s a lot of doubters out there and I’m just have to go out and show them,” Pierce said at his first presser as an NBA player.

He did show his critics and those who believed in him right from the jump of his NBA career through all the playoff appearances and through some tough seasons when the team underachieved in terms of not making the postseason.

After not making the postseason in Pierce’s first three seasons, the Celtics made it back to the postseason after a six-year absence. They reached the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2002 postseason before falling to their Atlantic Division rivals the then New Jersey Nets in six games.

The C’s would make it back to the playoffs in back-to-back-to-back seasons after that, but they fell in the East Semis to the Nets again in a four-game sweep and in the next two postseasons they lost to the Indiana Pacers being swept in four games in the opening round in 2004 and in then in seven games in the East Quarterfinals in 2005.

The next two seasons saw the Celtics go 33-49 and 24-58 respectably and no playoffs. The team and Pierce were at a serious crossroads.

In today’s world of the NBA, a player in Pierce’s position would have gone to management and asked to be traded or if their contract was up would have gotten out of dodge in a heartbeat.

“We were dropping games. We’re losing games you know a lot of players leave, and Paul never wavered. Never wavered.” Rivers said in an interview with ESPN/ABC’s Rachel Nichols. “That’s why he’s so loved. Not because he just a great player, but he’s remained    loyal to that franchise when things were at its worst. You never heard the complaints like ‘I have to get out of here. These guys are bad.”

Rivers joked with Nichols by saying that Pierce was the original, “trust the process.”

That trust would pay off in the summer of 2007 when Celtics GM Danny Ainge on draft night traded the No. 5 pick, who turned out to be now Orlando Magic forward Jeff Green, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West to the then Seattle Supersonics for perennial All-Star sharpshooting guard Ray Allen and Seattle’s second-round pick that June, which turned out to be LSU’s Glen “Big Baby” Davis.

That was followed by the acquisition of another perennial All-Star in Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves for Ryan Gomes, Theo Ratliff, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, and Sebastian Telfair.

“These guys are going to do whatever they can to make this thing work and like I told Danny in the back I feel like a rookie again,” Pierce said at the introductory press conference when he, Garnett, a.k.a. “KG” and Allen were introduced.

Led by what Scott Van Pelt of ESPN’s “Sportscenter,” dubbed in a commercial for the network’s flagship show of the new trio the “Boston Three Party,” they led the biggest turnaround in NBA history with a 42-game improvement in winning 66 games, just one shy of the franchise record, set by the 1985-86 team that won the title over the Houston Rockets in six games.

The Celtics won their 17^th Division title and would add four more along the way during the run of Garnett, Allen, and Pierce.

Despite having the No. 1 Seed in the East, the playoffs were no easy task for the Celtics, who needed seven games to defeat the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers in LeBron James’ first go-round in the first two rounds and they got by the Central Division champion Detroit Pistons in six games to advance to their first NBA Finals since 1987.  

The team they lost to in that season was the Los Angeles Lakers in six games and ironically enough, that is the team they met in the 2008 Finals, with this version led by future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant. It is the Celtics who would prevail this time in seven games winning their 17^th title in franchise history, the most in the NBA.

Rivers said to Nichols that what helped that team get to the top of the NBA mountain that year that the team when they got together talked about how there is no time to waste. That winning a championship was the goal and only goal for the 2007-08 campaign.

One of the lasting memories from that championship series came in Game 1 when Pierce appeared to have badly injured his knee.

Initially, Pierce asked the doctor if he could try to stand up and walk it off. The doctor said to him no, and Pierce was carried by the team’s doctor, and teammates Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine to the Celtics locker room and then the wheelchair was then brought out.

Rivers said to Nichols that he had no idea what was going on and assumed that Pierce was done and that the team needed to carry on without him and said as much to the team during a timeout.

“Adversity. You overcome it. Nothing stops us,” Rivers said.

Moments later, Pierce emerged from the locker room to a standing ovation from the TD Garden crowd.

Over the next five seasons that followed, the Celtics would make the postseason, but two of those runs ended at the hands of James and his new team the Miami Heat in five games in the 2011 Semis and in seven games in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals.

Perhaps the toughest end came in the 2010 NBA Finals when the Celtics blew a 13-point lead in Game 7 on the Lakers home court and went on to lose 83-79 on June 17, 2010 as the Lakers won their second straight title.

The 2012-13 season would be the last four the Allen, Garnett, Pierce, and Rivers as the No. 7 Seeded Celtics would fall at the hands of the New York Knicks in the opening round of that postseason in six games.

That off-season, Rivers was allowed out of his contract and moved on to become head coach of the Clippers and the Celtics in return received a 2015 unprotected First-Round pick.

A few days later, Pierce and Garnett, after waiving his no-trade clause were dealt to the now Brooklyn Nets. The deal that sent two of the “Big Three” from Boston became official on July 12, 2013.

The conclusion to this part of Celtics history came about because of the great line of open communication between Ainge and Pierce and Garnett from beginning to end.

“The good thing about it we had open dialogue about it and it was able to happen peacefully and no hard feelings because I respect Danny and what he was able to do for me in my career.” Pierce said.

In his 15-year career wearing the colors of green and white of the Boston Celtics, Paul Pierce averaged 21.8 points shooting 45 percent from the field, 37 percent from three-point range and averaged six boards in 36.6 minutes. He was a 10-time All-Star (2002-06, 2008-12). He as mentioned earlier led the C’s to the 2008 title and was named Finals MVP. Only Hall of Famer John Havlicek has scored more points in Celtics’ franchise history than the 22, 591 by Pierce. He does lead the franchise in three-point field goals made with 1,578; free throws made with 5,808 and steals with 1,583.

Rivers even said that while Pierce will finish his 19-year career with the Clippers, after one season with the Nets in 2013-14 and one with the Washington Wizards in 2014-15 that he should retire as a Celtic and that the Clippers plan to send him off in style by winning the organization’s first title.

“He is a Celtic,” Rivers said to Nichols. “We plan on winning one here this year. That’s our goal and he’s still a Celtic. He’s going to be a Celtic for the rest of his life. That’s what he is and that’s who he should retire as and when he goes into the Hall of Fame, that’s who he will go in as. That’s not even a question.”   

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 2/5/17 1:30 p.m. edition of “ESPN’s NBA Countdown” on ABC, presented by Straight Talk Wireless with Sage Steele and Jalen Rose, interview done by ESPN/ABC’s Rachel Nichols; 2/5/17 2 p.m. contest Los Angeles Clippers versus Boston Celtics with Mark Jones, Hubie Brown and Israel Gutierrez; www.espn.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/662/paul-pierce; www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BOS/leaders_career.html;  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Celtics#Season-by-season_records and http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Celtics.