Pierce to have MRI on injured left elbow

MIAMI -- Paul Pierce made a last-minute decision to attend Games 4 and 5 of the NBA Finals, arriving on a flight from Los Angeles at 1 a.m. yesterday morning and driving straight to Antoine Walker's home in the Miami area for a quick game of cards.

In contrast to his quick call on the trip, Pierce is taking his time with much bigger decisions about his future. He plans to undergo an MRI and further X-rays on his injured left elbow when he returns to LA to determine if he should undergo surgery. Then, he plans to visit with executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge in Boston to start discussions concerning a contract extension.

Pierce's left elbow is his most pressing concern at the moment. The swollen, painful joint was drained on a few occasions in the final weeks of the regular season and kept Pierce from playing the final three games. He was scheduled to have surgery to clean out the injured area earlier in the offseason, but backed out at the last minute.

``I've been scared," said Pierce. ``The swelling is all the way down and it hasn't flared up and a lot of the pain has gone away. It's gone away from a lack of playing. I'm not falling on it and getting it hit. I think if I play again and get hit, it will probably flare back up. I'm debating [having surgery]. I'm scared. I've never had surgery [on a basketball-related injury] before. I need to get it X-rayed more, get an MRI, then I'll decide. It was puffy during the season, but then, we kept poking it and kept draining it. So, hopefully, now we can see what's in there making it do that [swell up]."

If the elbow requires surgery, it may jeopardize Pierce's chances of trying out for the US men's national team this summer in Las Vegas.

``That's the whole thing," said Pierce. ``If I do the surgery, I don't know what's going to happen with the [national team] tryouts. When I get back from here, I'm going to get the MRI, talk to the doctors, decide if I need to have surgery. If I do have surgery, they've said that it will be two or three weeks where I won't be able to bend it. Then, we'll see what happens. If I can't, then I can't. I have to call Jerry Colangelo next week and make him aware of all this."

Pierce also must deal with uncertainty about the future of the Celtics. Pierce hopes Ainge can give him some answers.

``We'll probably start talking in the next couple of weeks [about an extension]," said Pierce. ``I talked to Danny [recently by phone]. I'll probably head to Boston in about a week or so. I'll sit down and just talk with him, to really just talk. I'll ask him what anybody in my position would ask: What's the future of the franchise? What can this team do to get better? Stuff like that."

Pierce has some thoughts about what the Celtics should do with the No. 7 pick in the NBA draft.

``It's a valuable chip," said Pierce. ``I don't know too much about this draft, about the talent. I don't know if there's going to be anybody that will be much of an impact player in their first year at the seventh pick. What would I do? I'd find a way to use that seventh pick to get a guy like a Kevin Garnett, a Jermaine O'Neal, somebody. At least explore it."

Garnett or O'Neal would push Pierce closer to being a participant in the Finals rather than a spectator. Until then, he will have to content himself with watching Walker compete on the biggest basketball stage. After following the Heat throughout the postseason and visiting AmericanAirlines Arena for the first and second rounds, Pierce wanted to be on hand to support Walker with an NBA title on the line. As he took in the Game 4 festivities last night, Pierce said watching the Finals in person serves as the ultimate motivation.

``I'm excited for Antoine," said Pierce. ``He has a chance to play for a championship. It's a tremendous opportunity and he deserves it. He's worked hard. This is what you play for. [When we played cards], he was bragging like, `P, this is the way they do it at the Finals. This ain't the Eastern Conference finals no more.' "

Pierce still believes the day he plays for an NBA title with the Celtics is coming.

``You never know what's going to happen," said Pierce.

Then, he joked, ``There's a big trade in the works."

When asked what he had heard, Pierce put an end to the charade and said, ``I'm hearing exactly what you're hearing, more Paul Pierce rumors. It's going to be like that every year probably for the rest of my career."

Maybe, but there would be a lot less talk if Pierce was in uniform this time of year and not dressed in a black leisure suit for an appearance on ESPN from the sideline.