Paul Pierce.
COMMENTARY | Paul Pierce played 15 seasons for the Boston Celtics before being shipped off just after the 2013 NBA draft to the Brooklyn Nets with fellow teammate Kevin Garnett.
Over that span, Pierce scored more points than nearly all of the other Celtics greats from the past. He tallied more points than Larry Bird, more than Robert Parish, more than Bob Cousy, more than Bill Russell and more than Kevin McHale. The only player Pierce couldn't match was John Havlicek, who recently spoke with Boston Globe reporter Gary Washburn to discuss Pierce's departure from Boston.
Of the several interesting comments Havlicek made to Washburn, none were more interesting than the Celtics legend's high praise for Pierce, referring to him as "the best one-on-one player of all Celtics."
That is quite the compliment to get from one of the NBA's greatest players of all time, and although it's true he qualified the statement by limiting the group to former Boston players, it's undeniable that no team has more Hall of Fame players than the Celtics, and Larry Bird is, at least according to LeBron James, one of the three greatest players in history.
So is Pierce the greatest one-on-one player in Celtics history? It's a tough call. The game has completely changed from what it was in the 1960s and 1970s when the Celtics were at their very best. Players are more athletic today and superstars are expected to be able to take defenders off the dribble. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was a lot harder to drive to the basket. There was no 3-point line, so defenders could hang back in the paint, and offenses were all about playing as a single cohesive unit. Referees also allowed defenders to be far more aggressive than today, when a player earns a technical foul for jabbering after a play. Even in the 1980s, the era of Bird, Dennis Johnson, McHale and Parish, the Celtics continued to emphasize team offense over individual stardom.
