Paul Pierce was one of LeBron James’ biggest rivals when he was in the NBA. In the 69 games they faced against each other, James won 35 and Pierce won 34. So you can imagine how much it must’ve hurt for Pierce to finally give James his flowers.
Pierce has been one of James’ biggest critics for the longest time. Yet, at a celebrity poker event, Pierce finally decided to give James his due credit, but also took a subtle shot at him while doing so.
“I’m a betting man, I think this’ll be his last season,” said Pierce when asked about James at a poker event.
“He’s played 21-22 years. He’s been the GOAT for so long; he’s maintained the stats. We appreciate what he brought to the game and how he’s held the mettle since Jordan left. Bron is one of them ones we’re appreciating. I think his time is up, but we appreciate what he’s done for the league.”
This is the same man who said he was more clutch than James in his career, even hypothesized that James could pick Pierce as the GOAT, and took credit for forcing James to work on his game with the amount of whippings he got on the court in his first stint with the Cavaliers.
For the longest time, Pierce had been putting championship conditions on considering James as the GOAT. While he sometimes changed his stance after James pulled off amazing feats, Pierce has mostly been a critic of James. Therefore, such praise coming from him is noteworthy.
At age 40, James is still averaging All-NBA caliber numbers. Last season, he averaged 24.4 points, 8.2 assists, and 7.8 rebounds in 70 games and was selected for the All-NBA Second Team. Performing on this level at his age deserves a lot of respect.
While Pierce gives him that on some level, Pierce has repeatedly hinted that he believes he had a one-up on LeBron James throughout his career.
Out of the 35 games that James won against Pierce, 18 were in the regular season and 17 in the Playoffs. Meanwhile, Pierce won 21 times in the regular season and only 13 times during the Playoffs in his career.
Therefore, while Paul Pierce won the marathon, which is a regular season series in this case, James came out on top when it mattered the most, in a sprint race, i.e, the Playoffs. This also shows that James has been more clutch than Pierce in his career, as when it mattered the most, he ensured his team won more than Pierce did.
