Truth Be Told...You Can't Handle Paul Pierce

Remember the scene in the movie A Few Good Men, where Tom Cruise plays a lawyer and Jack Nicholson a key witness blurts out: "You Want the truth, you want the truth, you can't handle the truth...." That, in a nutshell, is the dilemma the Lakers, Cavaliers, Magic and any other would be usurper to the throne face.

Paul Pierce was considered a lock to be in the top five of his NBA draft class. In fact, he wasn't even on the Celtics draft card because they thought he would be gone. They had their sights set on Dirk Nowitzki.

Pitino had even made a not so secret trip to Europe to see the German wunderkind.  How did that work out for Pitino huh?

Nellie picked Dirk with the ninth pick and the C's had to settle for the consolation price of Paul Pierce.

The only notables of that draft class were Antwan Jamison and Vinsanity Carter. They came from the more celebrated Basketball line on North Carolina. Jamison is a serviceable starter and Vinsanity has no heart.

The number one pick, Michael Olowokandi is out of the league and never panned out. Mike Bibby is an average point guard at best. All were taken ahead of Pierce.

Pierce came into the league with a deadly mid-range jumper and since then has included the three pointer to his game. He has never had a body that many would consider cut in fact he is hardly athletic by today's standards. Yet he is one of the most physical small forwards in the game. 

When he posts his opponents they can do nothing he sets them up with a patented fallaway or his bull rush moves to the cup.

He is never in the conversation about the top 10 players in the league, yet he has been a starter since his rookie season. He averaged 16.5 ppg; 6.4 rpg; and 2 assists a game. His assist total has went up each year and for his career averages 4.2 assists per game.

For the type of game he plays he has been remarkably durable; only his rookie season and the '06/'07 season were marred by any serious injury.

It's not Pierce's fault that they ran Auerbach out of the front office and a level of mis-management and ineptitude followed. The Truth never publicly complained, he kept working on his game. Opponents continued to game plan for him without getting much love from the media.

All you heard was Pierce is a star because he is on a bad team and they have no one else. When he was fatally stabbed he could have easily lost his love affair with the city and the team. But Pierce was their on opening night Oct 2000 to help his team.

He never made any public demands a la Kobe Bryant, the front office wasn't serious about building a team around him until Danny Ainge arrived. They were all looking for that home run pick ignoring the one player that stuck with them even though he almost lost his life to the city.

When Ainge supplied him with the help he craved, many people said he would become a petulant star. Pierce simply took fewer shots, and embraced the help that he was given. No animosity no back stabbing (no pun intended) he simply wanted to win.

He made that wily veteran move to steal the jump ball during game seven against the Cavs the moment arrived where he had to raise his game and he let out a primal scream.

The ghosts of Celtics past rallied around him as his free throw clanged and found its way through the bottom of the net. 

Pierce is never mentioned in the same breath with Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, or Kobe Bryant. Heck, Chris Paul gets more ink then him and what has Paul done in the league?

Ask Bryant, and James what it's like to go up against Pierce when everything is on the line. They haven't beaten him yet.   

So let the pundits talk about giving the regular season MVP to either one of the aforementioned three.  For now the truth will continue to stand tall with his Finals MVP and '07-'08 championship.

Are you ready for the Truth?

Because truth be told his team won last year and are poised for a repeat.