Pierce: ‘How Many Records Would I Have Without Two Lockouts?’

Paul Pierce has made it known he’s unhappy with the state of the lockout. He’s long been a strong voice from the players’ camp, expressing his displeasure with how things have played out thus far. But Pierce vehemently denies being the driving force behind the push for decertification, and wondered aloud about the impact of multiple lockouts on his legacy. As The Boston Globe reports: “While the NBPA did disband this past week, Pierce said he only viewed decertification as an option and denied that he was encouraging fellow players to dissolve the union. “I never told nobody to decertify,” he said. “That’s not something I was (doing). A lot of players around the league have respect for me and they call me in the summer because they know I got an understanding of what’s going on with the negotiations and a lot of players asked me about decertification. And all I did was bring the information to them. I didn’t push it one way or another.” Pierce said players began calling him about their options. “It was like they wanted to know so we got a conference call with a lot of the guys that was interested in it, talked to a lawyer about the ins and outs about it and that was pretty much it,” he said. “At the end of the day, it ain’t Paul Pierce saying this is what the guys are going to do. I’m only one vote. It’s got to be decided by everybody.”…If the schedule was intact, Boston would host Golden State on Sunday at TD Garden. “I’m very disappointed. I should be playing today,” Pierce said. “Who’s on the schedule? I think there’s disappointment on both sides. I was in here in ’98, who knows how many records I would have broken if I hadn’t gone through two lockouts?”