THE PAUL PIERCE MF TRUTH HOF INDUCTION THREAD - Sat 9/11/2021 - NBATV

[Hal14]

I'm 3:35 into watching his speech. He is such a personable, likable guy. Really good speech so far, good tributes to his mom and brothers.

I read that his father took off when Pierce was 6. Whoever his father is, he missed out on raising an amazing man. Sad. But like many athletes, they were able to persevere and be great, without a father figure.

[Hal14]

This speech is so real. This guy is so genuine. He is really speaking from the heart.

[Hal14]

oh man. That's awesome. I've watched a lot of hall of fame speeches. When Pierce named the 9 teams that passed on him in the draft, damn, that gave me chills -that was one of the best moments in hall of fame speech history.

[GreenBloodedC]

I love this photo man

[Gavin_TDThree]

Pretty solid speech! What'd you guys think of it?

Watch on YouTube

[exculpatory]

Pretty solid speech! What'd you guys think of it?

Watch on YouTube

It was the TRUTH & from the heart!

What else would you expect from the mother **** TRUTH!


But the much less HOF-deserving Chris Bosh once again proved that he is one of the most eloquent public speakers in the history of any sport! That is definitely why he was selected as the final inductee to speak.
Bill Bradley incarnate 50 years later.

[sam_I_am]

“To me, you’re one of the top five closer, clutch motherf---ing players of all-time,” Matt Barnes told Pierce on his podcast, All The Smoke. “You embraced ‘give me the ball at the end, and I’m gonna to make this motherf---ing shot.’ If it’s the biggest game, I’m gonna drop 40. That’s what you were known for to people who really knew hoop.”

All these years of posting here…..who knew that Ex was actually Matt Barnes the whole time?

[exculpatory]

“To me, you’re one of the top five closer, clutch motherf---ing players of all-time,” Matt Barnes told Pierce on his podcast, All The Smoke. “You embraced ‘give me the ball at the end, and I’m gonna to make this motherf---ing shot.’ If it’s the biggest game, I’m gonna drop 40. That’s what you were known for to people who really knew hoop.”

All these years of posting here…..who knew that Ex was actually Matt Barnes the whole time?

:0)

[exculpatory]

“To me, you’re one of the top five closer, clutch motherf---ing players of all-time,” Matt Barnes told Pierce on his podcast, All The Smoke. “You embraced ‘give me the ball at the end, and I’m gonna to make this motherf---ing shot.’ If it’s the biggest game, I’m gonna drop 40. That’s what you were known for to people who really knew hoop.”

All these years of posting here…..who knew that Ex was actually Matt Barnes the whole time?

[Hal14]

Pretty solid speech! What'd you guys think of it?

Watch on YouTube

It was the TRUTH & from the heart!

What else would you expect from the mother **** TRUTH!


But the much less HOF-deserving Chris Bosh once again proved that he is one of the most eloquent public speakers in the history of any sport! That is definitely why he was selected as the final inductee to speak.
Bill Bradley incarnate 50 years later.

Yeah Bosh's speech was something else. I didn't know he was that good of a speaker. Not only a great speech but it seemed like he had the whole thing memorized too, and spoke with such emotion. And that line at the end about his tears actually being water which was needed for his seed which allowed him to be great to grow - that was some serious poetic sh&t right there. I was like, damn!

[Gavin_TDThree]

Pretty solid speech! What'd you guys think of it?

Watch on YouTube

It was the TRUTH & from the heart!

What else would you expect from the mother **** TRUTH!


But the much less HOF-deserving Chris Bosh once again proved that he is one of the most eloquent public speakers in the history of any sport! That is definitely why he was selected as the final inductee to speak.
Bill Bradley incarnate 50 years later.

Yeah Bosh's speech was something else. I didn't know he was that good of a speaker. Not only a great speech but it seemed like he had the whole thing memorized too, and spoke with such emotion. And that line at the end about his tears actually being water which was needed for his seed which allowed him to be great to grow - that was so serious poetic sh&t right there. I was like, damn!

Completely agree! The Bosh HOF speech was something else. I was blown away

[zoyathedestroya]

Read on Twitter

[Fencer reregistered]

I'm 3:35 into watching his speech. He is such a personable, likable guy. Really good speech so far, good tributes to his mom and brothers.

I read that his father took off when Pierce was 6. Whoever his father is, he missed out on raising an amazing man. Sad. But like many athletes, they were able to persevere and be great, without a father figure.

Fortunately, Pierce had some caring older half-brothers.

There was even a story of one of the brothers reaming out the father for not caring about his great son.

[SuperDeluxe]

But the much less HOF-deserving Chris Bosh once again proved that he is one of the most eloquent public speakers in the history of any sport! That is definitely why he was selected as the final inductee to speak.

He's one of the classier athletes out there (if not the classiest). I always remember this, which he did without any fanfare:
https://www.winston.com/images/content/6/1/v2/611.html

[exculpatory]

Calling on old timers Caveman, Fencer, Sam, ETC (people whose opinions I care about [as long as they are close to mine - LOLOL]) for their insightful input about Paul & honest critique of my OP. Please be kind. This final Paul Pierce thread is the final act for Paul on this board - the culmination of his many many honorary threads over the years. This final Truth thread would not be complete without cogent entries by you guys.

Fencer - I am glad you returned to the Board after your brief self imposed absence - please don’t make me regret that I invited you to make a final Paul Pierce post & then you made me feel like a masochist.

Sam - I know you loved Paul almost as much as I did. A Truth quote by YOU has been in my sig for 10 **** years. You did not meet me as planned to ski at PARK CITY in 2/2020 - but I kinda forgive you. Say something eloquent, sweet & cogent please. (You and my youngest are UVA alumnae!! We all cannot go to Williams - LOL.)

Cave - I think we have evolved to a better place over the last 10 years - after some shaky initial interchanges back in the day. But you are one of our best posters of all time & I NEVER EVER fail to read your posts.
Please join me one last time honoring the Truth!

And of course Truth18 - are u safely back from LA? My youngest girl is a hot shot publicist in LA BTW!
And of course the trilingual SD - please/por favor/s'il te plaît give us your opinion!

(Sorry, Curm, brilliant attorney that you are, & regardless of your outstanding posts in the Covid thread in spite of being a non-medical person, you are not invited. You got me in big trouble back in the day mega-vehemently defending Paul VS your preposterous desire to get rid of a guy who obviously was going to blossom into a future first ballot HOFER. You never apologized for being 1000000% wrong & for upsetting me. Just joking - maybe. )

TRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTH!

[Hal14]

I also like that Pierce took the high road and used some maturity with his speech. 2 topics I was hoping he would avoid cause I was afraid that if he said anything about either topic it would be cringe-worthy and awkward:

1) the stripper instagram post which led to his firing by ESPN
2) LeBron and Paul's dislike of LeBron over the years

He just left both topics alone, fortunately. Also, while he did give Ray a shoutout and make funny jokes about their kids, he did not say anything about the beef between him and Ray, him and Rondo, KG and Ray/Rondo. All of the soap opera drama stuff in the media with those guys, who likes who, who doesn't like who. Paul left that crap out of his speech too, fortunately.

He kept it real.

[OBisHalJordan]

I thought it was interesting that he didn't say much about Antoine. There careers were linked for so long. I thought he would have said a few kind words about him.

[stepbackj34]

https://www.nba.com/news/paul-pierce-hall-of-fame-profile

16th leading scorer in NBA history w 26,397 points (2 points more than Hondo).

One of the most clutch players of his generation - & arguably of all time.

One of 15 players with >25,000 points, >7,500 rebounds and >4,500 assists in his career.

And his D was top flight as well when he let it all out.

He was only selfish when he had to be.

The durability of his multifaceted excellence was extraordinary.

And he was tougher than nails.

Arguably the most versatile scorer in Celtic History:
Tommy thought so.
Bob Ryan thinks so:

There even is one category in which Pierce vaults above the rest.
They’ve never had a guy in this town who was such a consummate all-around scorer,” Ryan said in a 2013 interview. “They say, ‘What about Havlicek? What about Bird?’ Well, John was a run-around-without-the-ball guy, he wasn’t a 1-on-1 guy. And Larry, there were circumstances when he could be guarded or instances when he wasn’t able to get his own shot and needed help. The great thing about Pierce is, he could always get his own shot. And ‘his own shot’ meant that he could pull up and take a three, he had that great mid-range jumper, had that beautiful step-back when he cleared space. He could post up. Tremendous driver, ambidextrous driver, great finisher. And he got to the line and he was pretty good free throw shooter. We’ve never had a more consummate all-around scorer.”

However, Larry Legend was Larry Legend & I therefore am not touching that debate.

Top 3-4-5 Celtic Legend.

#34 lifted to the rafters in 2/2018 - I was lucky enough to be there (I was also there for about 5 of his very many last second mega-clutch gamewinners).

NBA Champion & Finals MVP 2008 - and, if not for KG’s injury in 2/2009 & the forever accursed Game 7 in 6/2010, should have been at the least a 3 time NBA champion (and maybe even more times if he had been blessed w KG earlier in his career like Kobe was given Shaq - as opposed to having to carry garbage teams for his first 9 seasons).

10 time All Star & 4 time All Pro - and should have been selected MANY more times if he was not the most underrated Super Star of his generation.

Outplayed or played even Bron, Kobe, Vince & TMac during the majority of their head to head matchups.

From the linked article:
“Pierce was one of 15 players with >25,000 points, >7,500 rebounds and >4,500 assists in his career.
He reached four conference finals, two Finals and won one title (as the Finals MVP).
The list of players who can match that résumé includes only Garnett, Havlicek, James, O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Tim Duncan, Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon and Oscar Robertson.”

“His legacy is unlike any other player not considered among the 50 greatest players in history.”

And I personally would very comfortably rate him at least Top ~40 NBA All Time & easily Top 20 NBA All Time amongst wings (excluding bigs at the 4/5 & pure point guards) & easily Top 10 NBA All Time amongst SFs

My most favorite professional athlete in any sport by light years during my lifetime.

Thank you, Paul!

I love you, Truth!

(Much more to come as I gather up my Truth links!)

Lol its good to see Ex still here repping the legend of Paul Pierce. Congrats to Pierce for making the Hof and Top 75 all-time.

Also my favorite player ever. Top 5 small forward ever. It’s unfortunate that he never got to play with great teammates until he was 30.

[exculpatory]

https://www.nba.com/news/paul-pierce-hall-of-fame-profile

16th leading scorer in NBA history w 26,397 points (2 points more than Hondo).

One of the most clutch players of his generation - & arguably of all time.

One of 15 players with >25,000 points, >7,500 rebounds and >4,500 assists in his career.

And his D was top flight as well when he let it all out.

He was only selfish when he had to be.

The durability of his multifaceted excellence was extraordinary.

And he was tougher than nails.

Arguably the most versatile scorer in Celtic History:
Tommy thought so.
Bob Ryan thinks so:

There even is one category in which Pierce vaults above the rest.
They’ve never had a guy in this town who was such a consummate all-around scorer,” Ryan said in a 2013 interview. “They say, ‘What about Havlicek? What about Bird?’ Well, John was a run-around-without-the-ball guy, he wasn’t a 1-on-1 guy. And Larry, there were circumstances when he could be guarded or instances when he wasn’t able to get his own shot and needed help. The great thing about Pierce is, he could always get his own shot. And ‘his own shot’ meant that he could pull up and take a three, he had that great mid-range jumper, had that beautiful step-back when he cleared space. He could post up. Tremendous driver, ambidextrous driver, great finisher. And he got to the line and he was pretty good free throw shooter. We’ve never had a more consummate all-around scorer.”

However, Larry Legend was Larry Legend & I therefore am not touching that debate.

Top 3-4-5 Celtic Legend.

#34 lifted to the rafters in 2/2018 - I was lucky enough to be there (I was also there for about 5 of his very many last second mega-clutch gamewinners).

NBA Champion & Finals MVP 2008 - and, if not for KG’s injury in 2/2009 & the forever accursed Game 7 in 6/2010, should have been at the least a 3 time NBA champion (and maybe even more times if he had been blessed w KG earlier in his career like Kobe was given Shaq - as opposed to having to carry garbage teams for his first 9 seasons).

10 time All Star & 4 time All Pro - and should have been selected MANY more times if he was not the most underrated Super Star of his generation.

Outplayed or played even Bron, Kobe, Vince & TMac during the majority of their head to head matchups.

From the linked article:
“Pierce was one of 15 players with >25,000 points, >7,500 rebounds and >4,500 assists in his career.
He reached four conference finals, two Finals and won one title (as the Finals MVP).
The list of players who can match that résumé includes only Garnett, Havlicek, James, O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Tim Duncan, Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon and Oscar Robertson.”

“His legacy is unlike any other player not considered among the 50 greatest players in history.”

And I personally would very comfortably rate him at least Top ~40 NBA All Time & easily Top 20 NBA All Time amongst wings (excluding bigs at the 4/5 & pure point guards) & easily Top 10 NBA All Time amongst SFs

My most favorite professional athlete in any sport by light years during my lifetime.

Thank you, Paul!

I love you, Truth!

(Much more to come as I gather up my Truth links!)

Lol its good to see Ex still here repping the legend of Paul Pierce. Congrats to Pierce for making the Hof and Top 75 all-time.

Also my favorite player ever. Top 5 small forward ever. It’s unfortunate that he never got to play with great teammates until he was 30.

ALWAYS!