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Celtics' Paul Pierce finds 'The Truth'
Let every kid who picks up a Little League bat, dons Pop Warner shoulder pads or runs down a rec center basketball court take a minute this summer to consider Paul Pierce's career. In fact, there's a lesson here to be learned by anyone who will ever be part of any team over the next two generations.
When the Boston Celtics celebrated their championship victory on June 17 with unabashed boyish exuberance, it was hard to miss the mixture of disbelief and relief stamped onto Pierce's face. It was the first time most of the Celtics had ever experienced this level of success, but more than anyone else the team's captain personified the long, cold road back to glory for this franchise.
To finally achieve his goal, Pierce had to overcome the National Basketball Association's Future (Lebron James), Present (Kobe Bryant) and Past (the ghosts of Celtic greats from Cousy to Russell to Havliceck to Bird). And those might have been the easier obstacles.
Think about what Pierce had to do to win that ring. For a decade, the Celtics were His Team ? for better or worse. He was the marquee player for an organization going nowhere. Finally, last year the Celtics lost more than twice as many games as they won, including a franchise-record 18 losses in a row. Pierce missed seven weeks with a foot injury. The team posted the second-worst record in the league and got rooked out of the coveted top two draft picks in the lottery. For Pierce, the only lower point of his time in Boston might have been the night in 2000 when he was stabbed 11 times in a nightclub brawl.
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