The Truth's Route

by Green17 on Jun 22, 2008 3:38 PM EDT in Boston Celtics News & Links

Jackie MacMullan, easily the best basketball writer for my money, has a great article on Our Captain and his path to Finals MVP.

He is not a tidy superstar. You cannot neatly wrap the career of Boston Celtics captain Paul Pierce, the newly minted NBA Finals Most Valuable Player and first-time champion, in a perfectly symmetrical box with a corresponding matching ribbon.
His path to greatness has been far too gnarly for that.
"You're right," he said, still gleefully gripping his championship hat in the wee hours Wednesday morning. "Life has so many hurdles. Some of them I've hopped over, and some of them I've tripped over. The key is to get back up and finish the race."
Pierce is the first MVP to survive a nightclub stabbing so severe that wounds a half inch closer to his lung would have been fatal. It has been eight years since he lay bleeding in former teammate Tony Battie's car, his friend imploring him to "Hang on, man, hang on!" as he raced toward a Boston hospital.

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She might be our best local sportswriter. She was unparalleled in her team/player sources when she was on the beat, and she still gets the best stuff when she does the extensive issue or player-profile stories now as well. She’s not at her best with the short, glib column, but I think she does in-depth better than anyone.

by clover on Jun 22, 2008 4:15 PM EDT reply actions

we might have lost len bias and reggie, and lost the chance at duncan but we can thank our lucky stars paul had on the leather coat. he did not win us the finals as jackie asserted—the team won and that’s the real story. you don’t go to the game to see shaq or kobe or… you go to see the celtics team.

by nazzbo on Jun 22, 2008 6:53 PM EDT reply actions

yup, linking to this in my Thank You Paul Pierce article going up tomorrow

by Jeff Clark on Jun 22, 2008 7:14 PM EDT reply actions

Jackie MacMullan, in this article, summarized the essence of PP. A great article by a great writer. I hope she writes the book that tells the story of this season. I don’t know of anyone who could do it better.

by TrueGreen on Jun 23, 2008 8:11 AM EDT reply actions