Paul Pierce signed a one-day contract with the Celtics on Monday in order to retire in Boston, where he spent the first 15 years of his career and earned his spot among the Celtics’ legends. Pierce’s No. 34 will be retired and hang in the rafters of TD Garden alongside the likes of Bill Russell and Larry Bird, where it belongs as the most iconic Celtic in the last two decades plus.
While Pierce was putting the finishing touches on his NBA career to ensure he retired in green, Ice Cube was plotting on how to get the future Hall of Famer and current ESPN analyst to continue his basketball career in the BIG3. It didn’t take long after Pierce’s one-day contract in Boston for Cube to take to Twitter to recruit The Truth to his fledgling 3-on-3 league, as they continue to try and find more star power that will actually play.
Now that that's over, come sign with the BIG3! The Trurth will set us free… https://t.co/EUe3CTaDYN
— Ice Cube (@icecube) July 20, 2017
We’ve already heard that Pierce could have interest in joining the BIG3, as he was courtside for the first game in Brooklyn and, when asked about whether he’d consider participating, said it could be a consideration for him. Some may ask what Pierce has to gain by joining the BIG3, but he knows there are still some basketball skills there, even if he can’t handle the rigors of an NBA season.
That was one of the main goals of the BIG3 all along, to give players an outlet to continue playing ball competitively even after it was their time to leave the NBA — it was conceptualized after Kobe Bryant’s final game because he clearly had more in the tank. Pierce would seem to fit into that category pretty well, should he want to, and he would immediately become the biggest star on the court next season — assuming Iverson will not agree to a player contract after this year.
