Laker fans have serious issues with "The Wheelchair" incident from 2008. They call him a faker and an actor.
For those fans, here is some background about that via the Herald:
The notion that Pierce is fabricating his injuries doesn't make it past the waiting room of Celtics team physician Dr. Brian McKeon.
"I called for the wheelchair," McKeon said. "That was my decision.
"Paul hears a pop and has pain. The first thought is ACL. He said, 'Doc, I twisted it and I heard a pop and my knee hurts.' Until proven otherwise, that's an ACL injury. You have to treat it like that, so the clear decision was to take every precaution."
The same circumstances that give the tale such powerful legs two years later contributed to the moment itself.
"It was a difficult situation," McKeon said. "You had the media right there, with TV cameras almost right on top of us. And here's Paul in the NBA Finals, and this happens to him. He's nervous. He's scared about what it might be. Is his Finals over? That's going through his mind. Anyone can understand that.
"I wanted to get him out of there as fast as I could. I wanted to control the situation. I called for a wheelchair, but when it didn't get there fast enough, we carried him off. The wheelchair met us when we turned the corner into the last hallway."
Once inside the Celtics' examination room, the diagnosis was quick and evident.
"He tore part of his MCL," McKeon said. "That can act like an ACL tear, especially at first. When he came back onto the court, he still had pain. But he had so much adrenaline because of the Finals and everything that was at stake that he was able to play.
"But he had pain right through the rest of the Finals. Absolutely. He actually hurt more the day after the injury. The adrenaline carried him through the night before, and I think that got him through the rest of the series."
Pierce just shrugs it off.
"Hey, that's been made up into stories that are going to be talked about 30 years from now," he said. "And I had no control over it. I come off the court and I had a doctor telling me to get in a wheelchair. What am I supposed to do? Tell him no?"
Though I'm pretty sure that the fans that call him an actor won't read this or won't let it impact their feelings about it. Oh well. There's one more name that the rest of us will call him. Finals MVP.