In case you were wondering, John Havlicek — Hondo — is the Boston Celtics’ all-time leader in points scored. So he brings a lot of cache when he talks about the game’s best scorers. During the recent Hall of Fame induction ceremony this past weekend, Hondo told the Boston Globe‘s Gary Washburn that recently traded Paul Pierce is the best one-on-one player in Celtics history.
The Celtics are one of the most storied franchises in NBA history, winning 17 NBA championships, one more than the Lakers for the most all-time. They’ve had a number of different all-time players throughout their storied history, and Paul Pierce’s 2008 NBA Finals MVP award and 15 seasons of excellence permits inclusion in the “Best Celtics of All Time” discussion.
Hondo agrees and that’s why he’s like a lot of Boston fans these days after Pierce was traded — along with Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry — to the Brooklyn Nets this offseason as Celtics GM Danny Ainge attempts to rebuild around Rajon Rondo and a coterie of young talent and draft picks.
Hondo understands why Pierce was dealt, and he expressed hope Pierce gets a ring in Brooklyn while talking to Washburn. But it’s the little nugget at the end of his quote about Pierce that’s got us a little rankled (emphasis ours):
“Well I think he wanted to (stay) but circumstances changed and he was able to sort of give himself another shot (at a championship) so you can’t blame him for that,” the all-time great Celtic said after the Hall of Fame ceremonies Sunday. “It’s like Bill Sharman years ago, left the Celtics and became a Laker of all things. So I wish (Pierce) will and hopes that he gets that ring.”
[…]
“That’s what free agency does, it doesn’t allow you to have that continuity. We never made a trade in 10 years (with the Celtics) and all the people remained the same. It’s a lot different today but I wish him well. He’s one of the best all-around players and the thing I marveled at was his one-on-one ability. I think he’s the best one-on-one player of all Celtics.”
Except there’s one player that makes Hondo’s suggestion a bit risky: Larry Bird.
This always happens with the passage of time. Think about all the people who never saw Michael Jordan — or Magic Johnson or Bill Russell — play and yet claim that LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of all-time.
At their respective peaks, Bird was a better all-around player than Pierce — and the best modern Celtics player ever — but when you scale down the argument to only include one-on-one ability, it does get a little trickier. Plus, Hondo’s 26,395 points as a Celtic allows him a lot more leeway in these sorts of arguments: the kind we endlessly debate in the down days of August and September.
Keep reading to see a breakdown between the one-on-one abilities of Larry Bird and Paul Pierce.
One of the problems with these sorts of questions stems from the generational gap. I never saw Larry Bird play in his prime. I caught the tail-end of his career when I was just becoming lucid enough about the basketball I was watching to form lasting memories I can use when thinking about individual players from an earlier NBA.
Larry Bird at 35 wasn’t the player that Pierce was last season when he put the Celtics on his back after Rondo’s torn ACL and helped them limp into the playoffs with some defensive help from KG. But I’m not sure Pierce was the offensive player Bird was when both were at their peaks (like when they were both 30), and that’s forgetting that one-on-one ability doesn’t necessarily translate to shot efficiency or a high PER, or even wins — just ask George Gervin.
So this debate would have to occur with a basketball fan who watched Bird in his prime — one of the best of all-time, and Pierce in his prime — one of the best in the game at the time. When you look at a comparison between their first 9 seasons, before Bird’s ankles, back and [insert body part] started breaking down — it had already started long before his 9th season, but it didn’t show in his play — Pierce actually holds up well.
Obviously Bird was a superior all-around player, but Pierce might have him beat in terms of getting a bucket in isolation. I just don’t know, and part of that is how similar their games are. Both are big small forwards with three-point range and passing ability. Both used (and forgive the past tense here, since obviously Pierce is still active) a deceptive quickness to get into the lane and draw fouls, though Pierce was probably a little better at the getting into the lane part. Both possessed a solid post game with a strong-enough foundation to move a defender and cagy quickness to pump fake or spin and twirl around an opponent or get a defender in the air and out of position; both could score in traffic and shoot efficiently with a defender in their mug.
Bird shot a little better from deep, but Pierce attempted more and still hit at a solid enough rate for defenses to have to worry about him as a shooter. Pierce was skillful enough one-on-one player to almost drag a partnership with Antoine Walker to the NBA Finals in 2002. Bird won three consecutive regular season MVP awards and three NBA titles with three NBA Finals MVP awards. But Bird also played with Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, the former of whom might even need to be included in this discussion of the best one-on-one players in Celtics history (seriously, from what I’ve read and seen on YouTube, McHale could have averaged 30 points per game if he wanted; he was unstoppable on the block and had more post moves than Dream).
After reading Hondo praise Pierce and then proclaim him the best one-on-one player in Celtics history, I was tempted to lose my cool and scribble 1000 words on why he was dead wrong and probably going senile. I was raised in a devoutly Bill Russell, Larry Bird household and it didn’t initially sit well with me.
But Pierce was a lot better than people remember and Hondo just might be right, though I wouldn’t argue the point.
[Gary Washburn Sulia; h/t PBT]
Is Paul Pierce the best one-on-one player in Celtics history?
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