Paul Pierce reaches pinnacle

Finals gets due at last

By Tony Massarotti | Wednesday, June 18, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics

Photo by Matt Stone
He shot and he passed, he handled the ball, he played defense. Along the way, Paul Pierce [stats] opened the eyes of an entire nation at a time when the spotlight seemingly was reserved for someone else.

The renaissance Celtics [team stats] won the 17th championship in franchise history last night with a resounding 131-92 victory over the turtling Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, an inevitable affair that completed the greatest turnaround in league history.

What it did, too, was make Pierce exactly what the Celtics have long said he was, a brilliant player whose talent has never truly been appreciated. Or, for that matter, realized.

“No doubt,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said of his captain and Finals MVP. “I think Paul was viewed upon only as a scorer and now I think people see him as a complete basketball player. He had eight assists the other night (in Game 5). The game before that, he guarded Kobe (Bryant) and did a terrific job. I think he’s one of the best rebounders at small forward in our league and he’s a lethal scorer. He did it all.”

Said Pierce: “(The championship) means everything. You know, I’m not living under the shadows of the other greats now. I’m able to make my own history with my time here and, like I said, this is something that I wanted to do. If I was going to be one of the best Celtics ever to play, I had to put up a banner. And we did that.”

Bryant? The reigning league MVP might have been the best player in the NBA this season, but he wasn’t the best in these Finals. He really wasn’t even close. Pierce did not outscore Bryant in the six games, but he outplayed him at both ends of the floor, especially when it counted, especially when his team needed him.

And with each subsequent game, you could almost hear what the rest of the basketball world was thinking.

We knew he was good.

We just didn’t know he was this good.

Before we get to the obvious contributions and sacrifices Pierce made during his 10-year career with the Celtics, let’s focus on Game 6. Pierce finished with 17 points and 10 assists. He had eight points and six assists in the second quarter, when the Celtics outscored the Lakers, 34-15, and pulled away for good.

All of that came after a Game 5 in which Pierce scored 38 points because, quite simply, the Celtics needed him to. In Game 4, there was a symbolic block against Bryant and the improbable comeback. Pierce had 28 points in Game 2 and 22 in Game 1, the latter forever etched in Celtics archives as The Wheelchair Game.

Prior to that, there was Game 7 against Cleveland, the day Pierce went bullet-for-bullet with the inimitable LeBron James to score 41 points.

Looking back, as much as Kevin Garnett meant to these Celtics during the regular season, Pierce ignited them during the playoffs. In Games 5 and 6, a Celtics loss and a Celtics victory, respectively, Pierce effortlessly morphed from a scorer to a playmaker. In each case, he did whatever it took.

In retrospect, what games better demonstrated what Pierce meant to the Celtics, this year and before? In Game 5, Pierce single-handedly kept the Celtics within striking distance. In Game 6, he got some help and the Celtics blew the Lakers off the floor. Pierce gave the ball up, willingly, and he did not step off the floor for the first time until there was a mere 2:31 to play in the third quarter, when the Celtics led by 30.

Then fittingly, he took his place on the bench and among the Celtics greats, many of whom were in attendance to witness the latest initiation into one of the most accomplished brotherhoods in sports.

“These are the guys, the (John) Havliceks, Bill Russells, the (Bob) Cousys,” Pierce said. “These guys started what’s going on today with those banners. They don’t hang up any banners but championship ones, and now I’m a part of it. And just all the years talking to Bill and John and Cousy, finally I just feel like we’ve come out of that shadow and created our own. Now we can stand up and look at them eye-to-eye and say, ‘Hey, we accomplished it, too.’ ”

Last summer, long before this season began, the Celtics had a choice: They could trade Paul Pierce or they could keep him. They could build around a man who desperately wanted to carry the Celtics on his shoulders, or they could fully place their fate in the hands of some promising young men who had to learn how to finish the job.

Of course, the Celtics chose the former. And this time, this year, Paul Pierce made sure they finished.