bertrob wrote:DarkAzcura wrote:Yes, there is, and many have argued it. The only guys who don't put Pierce in the top 5 are old guys in the Boston media who look back at the 60's - 80's with the greenest shade of sunglasses I've ever seen. Pierce is without a doubt a top 5 Celtic when his career is over. Even Tommy would laugh a thousand times over if you ever said he was better than Pierce.
Only guys above Pierce are: Russell, Bird, Cousy, and Hondo.
Yeah I meant Hondo when I wrote Heinsohn. My mistake.
Anyways the only reason people argue it is because hes currently the Celtics Captain, and indeed a Celtics all-time great. Its impossible to differentiate between eras, you have to look at what they did in that era.
What argument does Pierce have over Cowens? Cowens won more rings for the franchise while being a better individual player.
Sam Jones? Much more rings, and was an all-star himself. He was pretty crucial to those 60s rings
Theres nothing wrong with Pierce being in the tier with Heinsohn, Sharman, White. Its laughable that people think that its somehow "demeaning" or "disrespectful" as awesome as Paul is hes has very few individual accolades (4 all-nba teams), one ring, an undeserved Finals MVP. Theres a lot of off-court stuff as well but its mostly fluff. The fact is that there are a lot of guys who have given a lot to this franchise, and Paul is one of them, but hes not one of the greatest.
We're the greatest franchise in basketball. We have a lot of amazing history.
Sam Jones was perhaps never a top 2 player on his team. First he was behind Russell and Cousy, and then Russell and Hondo.
Pierce has at least led awful teams to the Playoffs with Antoine freaking Walker as his supporting cast. Jones was basically a shooter, a very good one, but Pierce is versatile as hell and a much better defender. Pierce can just do more things on abasketball court. I will admit that Jones is probably one of the best game 7 performers ever.
And no my friend, you'll are not, that's the Los Angeles Lakers