Ironically, Pierce grew up in Inglewood, California a die-hard Lakers fan and hated the Boston Celtics. This was during the heated rivalry between to the two in the 1980s. Pierce ended up going to college at Kansas. He played three years for hall-of-fame coach Roy Williams before going pro. He played in 108 career games and had averages of 16 points and 6 rebounds.

The Celtics drafted Pierce with the 10th pick in the 1998 NBA draft. Pierce joined a Celtics team which was in disarray. The franchise was in the mist of it’s longest losing drought in franchise history and hadn’t had much to cheer about. Pierce did little to change that as the Celtics won only 19 games out of 50 games played. Pierce did have a solid rookie season averaging 16 points a game.

The early years of his career the Celtics were bad, but after being paired with Antoine Walker the Celtics finally started to see some success. In 2001 Pierce averaged 25 points a game but was not selected for the all-star game. He made the All-star team in 2002 and helped the Celtics make the playoffs for the first time in 7 years. In the playoffs Pierce leave a furious 4th quarter come back in the Eastern Conference Finals as the Celtics rallied from 21 down.

Sadly for Pierce and the Celtics the 2002 trip to the eastern finals was the highlight of that group of players. Their success dwindled down each season until they missed the playoffs 2006. Pierce too saw his numbers dwindle somewhat from 26 points a game in 2002 to 22 in 2005. He did see a resurgence in his scoring once Walker was traded in 2006.

The 2006-07 season was the hardest season for Pierce and one of the worst in Celtics history. Pierce played in only 47 games and the team lost a franchise record 18 games in a row. Following the season the Celtics decided to retool. The Celtics acquired guard Ray Allen from Seattle than forward Kevin Garnett from Minnesota.

Boston’s new big three helped turn the franchise around. Pierce was the undisputed leader of the trio who with rookie Rajon Rondo helped the Celtics win 66 games and the 2008 NBA title where Pierce was named finals MVP. Pierce helped Boston make the finals again in 2010 only to lose to the Lakers.

Pierce has recently re-signed with Boston as the Big three will look to make one run at an NBA title. Currently Pierce has played in 884 career games with the Celtics and has averages of 22 points and 6 rebounds.

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