Pierce reignites old magic for Wizards

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_nba/boston_celtics/2015/05/pierce_reignites_old_magic_for_wizards






Pierce reignites old magic for Wizards
A golden year for the Truth





Photo by: AP
HITTING CLUTCH: Wizards forward Paul Pierce (left) gets some love from teammate Garrett Temple after draining the winning shot in Game 3 against Atlanta on Saturday in Washington.


Monday, May 11, 2015
By:  Steve Bulpett



WASHINGTON — As he moves from the practice court toward the dressing room on this off day, Paul Pierce is smiling.

And it is still more than 48 hours before his Game 3-winning jump shot would light up the District night and warm the heart of a Celtics Nation that still considers him one of its own — before he would see a familiar face in the hallway after said shot and say, “Just like old times, huh?”

“I’ve never seen anyone smile so much,” said one Wizards employee on this lazy Thursday afternoon.

Pierce is 37 years old, but, really, he is not. At some point, he fired up the Wayback Machine and came out 25 years younger. He may play with the full wisdom of 17 NBA seasons, but basketball’s Benjamin Button is living like a 12-year-old. The childlike joy is evident, whether he’s trash-talking an opponent or sitting in the front row and pounding the glass at a Capitals playoff game.

Or banking in a 21-foot fadeaway at the buzzer to give the Wizards a 2-1 second-round series lead over Atlanta and telling the TV guy, “I called game.”

Even in the quieter minutes when his teammates aren’t mobbing him, the former Celtics captain exudes a youthful wonder. There is a measure of wide-eyed playfulness even when he’s being brash.

But the curious case of Paul Anthony Pierce isn’t really so curious at all when you ponder it a moment. His career has been that of a vintage wine, and at this stage he is well aware there are only so many opportunities to refill the carafe.

If this is one of the last sips, then he’ll damn well make certain to enjoy each drop.

“I’m having fun, man,” Pierce said. “You’ve got to enjoy these last years. You never know when I’m going to be done playing — this year or next year or whenever. So I’m making it a point to just enjoy myself, because I know I don’t have too many more left.”

He is reminded that his first Celtics coach, Rick Pitino, once called him a gym rat, and he accepts it with all its intended affection.

“I think you’ve got to love it, man,” he said. “Some people do it because they probably have to, and some people do it because they love it.”

That he’d still be doing it — and doing it well — is surprising even to him. He didn’t think he’d be dribbling for money in 2015.

“Not at all,” Pierce said. “Not at 37. I didn’t think I’d still be playing now. When I was younger and I got to be like 25-26, I was like, all right, I’ll play until I’m probably like 33 or 34 at the most. Now I’m sitting here at 37 and still having a great time, still showing up early getting to practice and still having fun with it.

“When I first came in the league, I was thinking a good career would be like 10 years. You know, if I can play 10 years, that would be so great. Then I got to be 26-27 and I knew I could play longer than 10 years. I don’t know how much longer I’ll go. Every year, I have to evaluate. I have to see how my body feels, talk to my family, talk to my mom. It’s always a constant re-evaluation when you get to this age.”

He said late in the season that next year would be his last, but he insists he has no definitive plan.

“I think when I said it, I felt it at the time,” Pierce said, adding with a laugh, “Maybe we were going through a string of four games in five nights. We’ll see. We’ll see how it goes.”

In addition to his willingness to take each day as it comes, Pierce carries an ability to lean on his past. In 15 years with the Celtics, he became the face of the franchise through good times and bad.

“The losing years and the up-and-down years, I think that’s what made me who I am,” he said. “Going from a team that couldn’t win to a team that made the playoffs and then back to a team that couldn’t win, I think those type of years build a lot of character in a player. It just shows the type of player you’re going to be, especially when you can deal with the losing years and still have the motivation to go out there and try to be the best.

“I just think that’s what made me, man. I feel like I’ve always been an underdog anyway my whole career, so I think what made my time in Boston special was hitting rock bottom and then going from there to winning it all. That was the most special two-year period of my whole life.”

(The September 2000 stabbing that nearly took his life isn’t part of his structure. “I let that go a long time ago,” he said.)

The Lakers fan from Inglewood, Calif., embraced everything Celtic — the history, the highly-engaged crowd, the franchise legends whose ranks he joined. And then it was over. Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry were traded to Brooklyn in the summer of 2013 for a selection of players and three first-round draft picks that would be key material for president of basketball operations Danny Ainge’s reconstruction project.

“Obviously I wish I could have just finished up in Boston, but who knows if I’d even be playing still?” Pierce said. “If I’d stayed in Boston, that next year (2013-14) could have been my last, the end of that last contract. You know I wanted to finish my career there, but I understand in this day and time how much of a business it is. It was definitely a tough year for me down there in Brooklyn.

“I definitely can understand what Danny did from a business aspect. They’re transitioning into a new generation, a new era, and they’re trying to build for the future.”

Pierce laughs at the picks the Nets surrendered (three first-rounders and a Celts’ right to swap opening round places in 2017). Less than two years later, Garnett and Terry had been traded and Pierce had left as a free agent.

“I’m not even thinking about their situation,” said the 10-time All-Star. “I put all that behind me now. It’s all about where I am now. They’ve got to deal with that.”

Someday, Pierce may have to deal with deals of his own. He won’t be through with basketball when he’s through playing, and, yes, he’d very much be interested in returning to the Celtics to work and learn under Ainge when he’s done bedeviling younger opponents.

“Truthfully, I love the game,” he said. “I want to have my hands on some aspect of the game, whether it be management, ownership. I don’t know right now about coaching. I’m not sure yet. But I definitely want to be involved with the game in some form or fashion.

“It’s definitely a tough business,” he added. “It’s definitely hard work that Danny has to do. He has to think about so many things that come into play when you’re a GM. It’s the relationship you have with the players, it’s the future, it’s about the money and the salary cap. You’ve got to make difficult decisions all the time. And as bad as he wants to win, he understands it’s a building process also, until you can make your move.

“It’s like playing chess. You know, sometimes you’ve got to play your pawns, like he did in ’07, until he made his big move to make the trades. . . . Sometimes it works, and sometimes it don’t.”

Asked if he could see himself in that job, Pierce grins. “I think I’m a fairly good chess player,” he said.

But for now, the child that is Paul Pierce still has basketball to play. Tonight he gets to play against the Hawks in Game 4.

Neat, huh?





bob
MY NOTE: It's still tough watching him wear someone else's laundry, but I'm happy for him. It was time for us to move forward into the future and he had one bad year in Brooklyn but is loving it again. Everybody's happy (except for the Nets, whom we own).



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