No matter your personal opinion on Paul Pierce, the former Celtics star was a great basketball player in his prime.
After 15 seasons with the Celtics, he was a 10x All-Star, 4x All-NBA player, and 1x NBA Champion. There is no doubt, that it’s a career worth being proud of, but it doesn’t mean Pierce does not have his regrets.
In a chat with NBC Sports Boston, “The Truth” revealed the one regret he does have looking back:
“The only regret I have is not winning that second one. That’s it.” Pierce said.
Pierce must be talking about the 2010 season when he helped lead the Celtics to another Finals appearance.
The series went all the way to seven games (with Boston up 3-2) before the Celtics eventually lost to Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.
Winning that 2010 title would have changed Pierce’s legacy forever. Still, even winning that one was an impressive feat, void of any of the modern-day trends.
“It’s different now. Players move around a lot. They manufacture their teams. The way we did it was a little different,” the Celtics legend said. “People will say I played on the new era super team, but it’s like, we had to get lucky. We got lucky with the draft pick, we got lucky with the trade, we got lucky with Kevin Garnett dropping his no-trade clause.
So all these things had to line up, whereas today guys manufacture playing with each other, building super teams through free agency, building friendships. And I have nothing against that. That’s why I take so much pride in being with the team I was with so long, going through the tough times and finally being able to win a championship.”
There’s no going back and changing things now. Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen were only good enough to capture a single title, and there’s no doubt it probably eats them up a little inside.
Still, their victory deserves to be celebrated and it’s one the basketball world will not soon forget.
