Speaking on ‘The Truth Lounge,’ Celtics legend Paul Pierce set the record straight on his role in popularizing the modern superteam trend. According to Pierce, the situation in Boston was not the same as we saw in Golden State or Miami for a few key reasons…
“It wasn’t me calling KG or calling Ray Allen like we should play together. Ours happened — it happened all upstairs. That was all Danny Ainge finessing, going into his bag. Those owners, figuring out what they gonna do. They came to me like they wanted me to stay long term and they wanted to build around me to win a championship.”
Unlike modern superteams, Pierce and the Celtics came together organically and there was no pre-mediated recruiting process involved. In Golden State, it was Draymond Green who set up Kevin Durant’s arrival and it was LeBron who orchestrated his alliance with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Heat.
“When LeBron did it in Miami, that was manufactured. Mine was handmade, switched in, we didn’t know what direction we we’re going. Then all of a sudden we got the worst record, next thing we got the fifth pick, we trade the fifth pick and end up with Ray Allen. Now we got these young assets and we can get KG… now when you look at it, LeBron calling Wade, calling Bosh like ‘what you wanna do?'”
While some, like Draymond Geen, will forever view the late 2000s Celtics as one of the OG superteams, it wasn’t built in the same way as some modern examples. It was only through Danny Ainge’s leadership and a series of trades that the Celtics’ core came together. So while you can call them a “superteam” based on talent alone, none of the players actually had a hand in how it went down.
Paul Pierce Blames LeBron James For Normalizing Superteams
It’s no secret that Pierce still blames LeBron for making the “superteam” such a common occurrence in the NBA today. When LeBron defied expectations and announced his arrival in South Beach in 2010, he changed everything about player movement and star loyalty.
From Kobe Bryant to Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan, it was largely expected for stars to stay with their original teams at the time, and James, who was from the Akron, Ohio area, already had a solid setup with the Cavaliers.
But LeBron became the exception when he went to Miami. Not only did he disrupt the NBA’s balance of power (and gain plenty of haters in the process) he also normalized the idea of even the best of the best ditching their teams to join other stars.
In the years that followed LeBron’s decision, superteams have become all too common in the NBA and they continue to live on today with teams like the Phoenix Suns and the Boston Celtics.
No matter who you blame, the “superteam” trend is here to stay and it will be interesting how it evolves over time. As one of the early pioneers of the movement, Paul Pierce can now only sit back and watch as stars keep joining forces from all corners of the league.
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