Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 9:00 am  |  120 responses

Paul Pierce Is Actually Serious About This ‘Best Player in the World’ Thing

by Marcel Mutoni

When the news initially broke about Paul Pierce telling a Spanish publication that he’s the best basketball player in the world, I chuckled and proceeded to ignore it, figuring Paul was either still drunk from the post-title celebrations (which would be perfectly understandable), or that something simply got lost in the translation.

Well, it turns out that The Truth didn’t get his words twisted across the pond; he’s dead serious about this. The Boston Herald caught up with the reigning Finals MVP and asked him the question again, and Pierce didn’t waiver.

“That’s what I said. I am a confident player and a lot of people might look at it like ’Oh, another cocky attitude,’ but I don’t look at it that way,” said Pierce.

“I have an opinion, I have a right to have one and that’s the way I feel. I felt I’ve played against the best over the years and felt right now that I’m the best player in the world.”

I should preface this by stating that despite the terrible things he did to my team this past June, Paul Pierce is one of my favorite players in the League. There’s not much that he can’t do on the offensive end, and can be downright unstoppable at times. An absolute joy to watch.

Until he proves that he’s even the best player on his own team, however, I’m simply going to have to ask him to pass along whatever it is that he’s been smoking of late.

(Thanks to Larry Brown for forwarding the link.)

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  • Jason

    If Paul wants to beleive that about himself, so what. The best players have to beleive that they are the best, otherwise why should they expect respect from anyone else? They wouldn’t be where they are today if they didn’t beleive they are the best. Paul just came off his first championship where he was the finals MVP, let him celebrate a little, stop trying to rain on the mans parade, damn.

  • Jason

    James: The NBA players are considererd the best in the world, yes..there are a lot of great players in the league that are not on that team that either A.) were not asked or B) didn’t want to play for team U.S.A, that you could take some of those names off that roster and substitute and team U.S.A would still do just as well. Team U.S.A were trying to build a supposed well balanced TEAM, just because the players that were chosen are on TEAM U.S.A doesn’t make all of them the best players in the NBA. Team U.S.A’s roster is not filled from top to bottom with the best players in the league (considering that there still a lot of great players in the league that aren’t on that team, goes to show how lucky we are to have them play for us), but rather the players that work for the team and help make the team well rounded. This topic has nothing to do with what Paul said anyway, he just won a championship..which is far more important then a gold medal for a NBA player. You’re far off to the left.

  • http://hibachi20.blogspot.com Hursty

    f*ck reading those long comments. Pierce played better in the series, Thats it. Kobe is better overall. Conversatoin over.

  • http://evolve.aokhost.com/logs/ Sylvio Mac

    Anyone hear about european teams possibly making a run at lebron when he becomes a free agent in 2010? I’d love to see the look on david stern’s face if (big IF) lebron actually takes off to europe

  • Jose

    for now pierce can say that,as long as he dosnt keep saying it over and over again

  • Roses

    All I’m saying is Pierce significantly outplayed Lebron and Kobe (widely considered to be the top 2 players in the world today) in the same month and on the biggest stage. Gotta respect that and clearly the man belongs in the discussion of top NBA player.

  • mitch

    not the best but extremly good I really like him, well I used to until he made that comment. I still like him but not as much.

  • Jolst

    In related news Earl Boykins says he’s the tallest man in the NBA.

  • http://www.slamonline.com James the balla

    hahahahaha jolst … thats beautiful.

  • chicagogreen

    roses, thank-you, finally some sanity here

    balla, you can not like pp, you reasonably argue that he doesn’t belong in the discussion of top players (i think you would be wrong but at least it would be an argument), but arguing that his game is “ugly,” that he is not a smart player, that his footwork and fundamentals are anything other than superb, that is just really dumb. So what if he doesn’t jump out of the gym, he is bigger and stronger than everybody else he faces except lebron and he uses that to get his shot off. (and his size gives lebron a ton of trouble since he is really the only other competitor lebron has in that area, maybe artest) Yes in the past he dribbled through double and triple teams with that spin move, but would you rather he passed the ball to kedrick brown, or vin baker? doesn’t get off the ground…what an asinine criticism, look at whether or not the ball goes in

  • john

    paul just happy right now cause they just won, but all that best player crap will cool down, IT BETTER!!!!… play kobe one on one paul,lol

  • joesmoove

    P2 is bugging. Where was he last year, they were the worst in the league and he was healthy! The Heat were bad this past year but DWade was hurt coming off 2 surgeries. We now see that he is healthy and everyone in the Eastern Conference better be prepared.

    Back to P2, clearly the NBA FInals bug is still in him. KG is the best player on his team, so he is not even the best on his squad. He is a solid player on both ends of the court no doubt, but the game is played above the rim these days and he has not ever been cleared for airspace my dude. He got lucky, did his job while the luck was with him, and that deserves much love and credit, but dream on P2.

    The best right now are DWade, Lebron, Kobe, Paul (you rate them, that stuff changes every season, this year coming up tells me DWade will rise above all!).

    Joesmoove

  • yoursweatersux

    Ok so wait a sec… he outplayed lebron and kobe, and won a championship doing so… so why isn’t he allowed to think he’s the best??? I’m not even saying he’s the best, but after what he accomplished, he’s allowed to think whatever the f*ck he wants. Frankly, a lot of people trash him b/c his game looks sloppy. But you know what? PP can get where he wants to go on the court, against any defender, at any time. He takes it to the cup whenever the f*ck he wants. Yeah you can talk all day about Kobe having a sick fadeway, or whatever. But Kobe couldn’t penetrate the celtics d, so he settled for jumpers. I’ll take a layup from PP any day of the week over one of Kobe’s retardedly difficult to make fadeways, even if he does make them a moderate amount of the time.

  • BC_24_8

    Paul Pierce thinks he’s the best player in the world, lets get one thing straight Paul Pierce couldn’t even get anywhere last season (06-07) with the worst record in the league Kobe on the other hand actually gt his team to the Playoffs. So he wins a title and a finals mvp with two future hall of famers and he thinks he’s the best on the planet he’s not even in the top 5 players list in the NBA not to even mention in the world. But it’s okay Kobe’s got people across the world that he’s the best player and Paul Pierce is saying it for himselve.

  • The Promise

    Well, I look at it like this. Just because Paul hung with Kobe in the finals doesnt mean hes better. I mean, he didnt destroy Kobe in the finals. He has his opinion, sure, but that doesnt mean its right. The only game he really outplayed Kobe was game 5, and he didnt even win that game. And if you remember, with like 40 seconds to go in the game, Kobe picks his pocket and puts the nail in the coffin with a 2 handed slam. If he was better than Kobe, he would have got by him and scored. Because thats what you do to somebody when you are better than them. And for the record, Vladamir Radmanovic guarded him for most of the game, not Kobe. It would have been a whole different story if Kobe guards him the whole game. I think everybody on this site that has any sense at all knows thats true.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    @ James: Once again you fail to use common sense. Considering having to share the ball with his teammates, 21 ppg is very good. And unstoppable is the entire Lakers team not being able to stop Paul Pierce whatsoever. I never said that Pierce is the best player in the world you idiot, but he is definitely a really good ball player. And by the way, Pierce is to your favorite player Lue as Michael Jordan is to you. ‘Nuff said.

    PS: ONYX hates you, James.

  • kb4ever8

    Pierce and josh Howard must be hanging our a lot this summer. Pierce is the best player in the world…… NOT!

  • Slobodan Chutzpah

    You could see this coming when, some weeks after winning the title, he was still hauling that Finals MVP trophy around like it contained the ashes of her deceased mother. Pierce become one of my favourite players during this season (partially because he seemed like a genuinely nice guy), but he’s seriously letting all of this get into his head. I see an unexpectedly difficult season ahead for the Celts.

  • Kid Charlatan

    To Yann Blavec, who said, “The NBA finals mvp is always a member of the winning team. Does that mean that Bill Russel was better than Wilt?” … In 1969, Jerry West won Finals MVP while playing for the losing team.

  • http://slam.com Prince 1

    No way hes not better than KOBE

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