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One person voted for ex-Boston Celtics legend (and Basketball Hall of Famer) Paul Pierce as the game’s greatest of all time in The Athletic’s recent anonymous poll of NBA players.
As good as Pierce is, this is very likely his first public inclusion into the GOAT conversation, which has largely been populated by Michael Jordan (who received 45.9 percent of the vote) and LeBron James (42.1 percent).
During an appearance on Tuesday’s edition of FS1’s Undisputed show with Keyshawn Johnson and Skip Bayless, Pierce was asked about the vote, alongside a query on who he thought voted for him (h/t Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing).
“Hey Skip, Key, sometimes it’s not always everything you do on the court, but off the court too that makes you the GOAT,” Pierce said.
“Hey, it’s a combination of things that can put you in the GOAT conversation buddy…Don’t hate the player, hate the game, you know what I’m saying?”
Soon afterward, Pierce brought up James’ name unprompted.
“What if LBJ voted for me? I played against him, he must think something. What do you think about that? What do you think about that? We had a lot of battles. Come on now, we had some tough battles. We had some tough battles. It could have been LB.”
Johnson then said that he held his own, and Pierce said he agreed (until he got old).
The C’s and James’ Cleveland Cavaliers (and later Miami Heat) absolutely had some battles. Boston beat Cleveland four games to three in the 2008 Eastern Conference semifinals and 4-2 in the 2010 East semis. James then left for the Heat, who beat the C’s in the 2011 East semis and 2012 East finals.
Pierce held his own against one of the game’s all-time legends. He’s not the GOAT, but he had a great career in his own right, making 10 All-Star teams and four All-NBA teams. Pierce also made the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.
