A full circle with Pierce
Former Celtic’s final time in Garden on same date as first
Paul Pierce took a ride down Storrow Drive yesterday, and thus began a morning tour of his old city.
Pierce brought his wife Julie on this trip and left their two children home in Los Angeles, figuring they didn’t remember much about Boston.
So he posed for pictures like a tourist, in front of Fenway Park, the Garden, and capturing a view of the city skyline from across the river on the Memorial Drive sidewalk, next to the MIT Boathouse. He put them all up on Instagram, and continued to think about the biggest day on his 2017 calendar.
That would be today, and the retiring Clippers forward’s most likely last game at the Garden. Pierce has only played in 12 games this season, the last on Dec. 31. He hasn’t scored more than seven points in a game this year, but that could change today. It did for Kobe Bryant last year in his final Garden appearance, when he had 15 points with 11 rebounds.
Yes, even the legendary Laker felt something special about one last step onto the parquet. But this is different. Bryant went on a retirement tour last season, and Pierce’s last time on the circuit has been quiet.
This is the only meaningful stop to Pierce.
“I know when I step foot in that Garden that this is the last time I’ll play here. It’s just going to remind me this is it,” Pierce said before the Clippers practiced at Northeastern University. “This is sort of like my goodbye. This stop right here in Boston.
“Kobe had like the whole all year in every arena. But this is just mine right here, I feel like,” he said. “This is like my goodbye, when I come into the building, when I come into the TD Garden tomorrow.
“This is my one arena where it’s like really saying goodbye to the game. Knowing that this is my last season. So it’s a little different from other players. Some players walk away quietly. You don’t know when they’re retiring. Kobe announced before the year. I announced before the year.
“And it’s just like, this is going to be my farewell. Once I leave here.”
A step inside the Garden is like a return to the womb for Pierce. He was a rookie here, and the captain of an NBA champion nine seasons later. At one point he was the lone All-Star on a seldom-winning team of youngsters.
“We remember Paul because he was a great player and he won a title. I give him more credit for bucking the trend,” said former Celtics coach and current Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who reunited with Pierce in Los Angeles last season. “He went through a lot of lean years and I never once heard him say I want to leave. I never heard him say it. He just hung in there and kept wanting the team to get better.
“Danny (Ainge) and I spent a lot of time telling him what we wanted him to do. He exhibited a tremendous amount of patience,” Rivers said. “That’s what I always think about with Paul. In a time when guys want more winning, want more guys, want this, he wanted us to keep pushing and getting better and it turned out for him. Got Ray (Allen), Kevin (Garnett), (Rajon) Rondo, the whole group, and we ended up winning a title. But for Kevin’s health, I don’t know how many times we may have won. Paul was a true Celtic and a true, my God, he just stuck it out.”
Today, Pierce probably will show up early, just to soak up that old familiarity.
“When you have people around that’s been around like that, it’s great because they can share your history, they can share your story,” said Pierce. “So it’s like a friend that you grew up with, a close friend that you grew up with. When you share a story with somebody it’s like a confirmation when you go back. Guys like the equipment manager, they can share your story with new people who come in.
“And that’s the value of having people who have been there, who have seen it all, especially with one franchise,” he said. “It’s like the story never gets forgotten. It carries on. So hopefully my story and my history with the Boston Celtics can be carried on. The behind-the-scenes stuff, the stuff that people don’t see.
“A lot of people see the stuff that happens on the court. With the workers and the ball boys and the equipment managers, they see the stuff behind the scenes. They can give you a different perspective of things that other people can’t give you. And that’s the stuff that you value.”
Pierce said yesterday that he had hoped to somehow retire as a Celtic, which won’t happen. He’s often talked of taking a job with the Celtics after he retires, and would give it serious thought if Ainge reached out, but he’s also talked with Rivers about working for the Clippers.
On this trip, however, Pierce wasn’t particularly anxious to look ahead. Today’s appearance is simply too important, with a strange coincidence that Pierce doesn’t seem to consider coincidental.
Pierce played his first game as a Celtic on Feb. 5, 1999 against Toronto — the season opener pushed that far back because of a prolonged labor lockout.
And now, this is Feb. 5, 2017.
“Somebody texted me that,” he said. “And for me to be coming here for a Feb. 5 game for my last game in the Garden, that’s pretty ironic. See how things work? It’s unbelievable.”
‘I know when I step foot in that Garden that this is the last time I’ll play here. It’s just going to remind me this is it.’ — PAUL PIERCE On playing at his old home