By Gary Washburn, Globe staff

DORCHESTER -- Paul Pierce spent his Saturday morning leading exercise sessions with local kids at the Salvation Army Kroc Center, part of his program for childhood fitness, and he was expected to participate in tonight's Rajon Rondo-organized all-star game at Harvard.

Pierce is ready to return to the court for the Celtics, but the four-month long NBA lockout that has now become a legal battle prevents that. Pierce was linked to a player uprising that was prepared to decertify the players' union for a better advantage against the league's owners.

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."

The first six weeks of the NBA schedule have been wiped out by commissioner David Stern, including the first 20 Celtics games. 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?"

The kids at the fitness event cheered vigorously when Pierce entered the Salvation Army gym and he walked through the groups of kids, slapped hands, took pictures and participated in the exercise programs.

"It's hard when you see the fans and you go out in the community and they ask you what’s going on and you can't really give them an answer," he said. "It's like a stalemate and I feel bad because these are people that are really our big fans who really enjoy watching us play. We're depriving a lot of people. I hope it doesn't go through full litigation but that's the route the players have chosen and I am sticking with that route."

Celtics captain Paul Pierce blogs exclusively on Boston.com's Celtics Blog. He'll offer his insight and opinions on basketball, his life and other topics in occasional installments.

So you might have caught wind of it a little bit by now, but I want to put it out there for the fans and the league to know: I’m definitely trying to compete in the 3-point Shootout at NBA All-Star Weekend in Dallas this year.

I’ve got my reasons.

Some of you might remember a few years back I was in the 2002 3-point Shootout contest. If you don’t, here’s a little YouTube clip to jog your memory.

I only made eight shots!

I was EMBARRASSED! The only thing that saved me from major embarrassment was that Steve Smith shot an eight, too. If he didn’t shoot a eight then I would have been totally embarrassed.

The craziest part is, I never practiced for it. I thought it was just go out there, shoot and make shots. But you’ve got to practice grabbing the ball off the rack and getting to the next spot. You’re used to getting a pass. If I did it this year, I would set up the racks and actually practice for it. Because you’ve got to have a strategy, I think.

So I want to try to redeem myself from that embarrassment, man. I feel like I put in a lot of time on my shooting.

Actually this was a goal of mine. I wanted to shoot over 44 percent from the 3 this year. You know that’s the Danny Ainge line that used to be the team record until Eddie House edged him out last year. I told E-House back in training camp that I was shooting for his record. I told him and had been doing a lot of 3-point shooting and just shooting in general. I told him that was one of my goals.

I know he’s got a campaign going for the 3-point contest too.

But if you look at the numbers, I’m shooting 47 percent from 3. I’m having the best 3-point shooting season of my career. Hopefully I can redeem myself if they let me. I don’t know how they choose the shooters. I think they just choose you based on who they think are the best 3-point shooters. But I want to get a chance to try it again after only making eight shots.

As far as the NBA All-Star Game itself, it’d be nice to go, but I’m not putting a lot of thought into it. We’re trying to get through these games. We’re trying to get healthy. We’re trying to grind it out until we get the troops back.

But I will say if anybody should make All-Star this year, I think it’s Rajon Rondo. He’s made major strides. But you can see it in his work ethic. It’s not something that just happens, you’ve got to work at it, and he works at it. He watches film on the plane. He’s always watching games after the game. He wants to get better.  

I hope he can be a part of All-Star Weekend, and I hope I can too, especially the 3-point contest. The thing is, you enjoy the whole experience. You’re sitting there on the court, watching the dunk contest or the 3-point contest of the rookie game, you just want to enjoy the experience. You’re around your peers. You’re around the best of the best.

Regardless of if you talk smack during the season or when you play against each other, but it’s another thing when you get around each other. You just enjoy being around each other for that weekend and just having fun. 

As told to Globe reporter Julian Benbow.

Paul Pierce's FitClub34 by Harvard Pilgrim is a Truth Fund program providing children with the information, resources, and tools necessary to become more active and physically fit. To learn more, visit www.truthonhealth.org

Note: Paul Pierce is holding a raffle at paulpierce.net to win his personal suite at the Garden for the Celtics' Jan. 31 game vs. the Lakers. Tickets are $2 each.

Celtics captain Paul Pierce blogs exclusively on Boston.com's Celtics Blog. He'll offer his insight and opinions on basketball, his life and other topics in occasional installments.

When you look at it, it’s so crazy. I can’t even fathom it.

In my lifetime I’ve seen all these world tragedies, from the tsunami to Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans flooding and now to this, the earthquake in Haiti. It’s humbling. It really is.

The thing about it is you have no control over it. No one does. Not you or me, or the people in Haiti. An earthquake. A hurricane. A tsunami. When tragedy hits and it hits people who are already in bad positions, it’s just random.

It’s just life. Growing up one of my best friends -- I hung out with him every day -- was murdered. And you always want to say “Why?” “Why did it have to be him?” It’s so random. But they all go to a special place. I believe in God and I believe in heaven and they all go to a special place.

As far as the earthquake, I know people who are directly affected by it. I know people in the league like Samuel Dalembert, he’s from Haiti. My heart goes out to him and his family. It’s tragic. It’s unfortunate. I know he gave $100,000 to help with the relief effort for the families there, and I plan on giving out a donation, too.

In a way, I can relate. I’ve got extended family in New Orleans on my mom’s side – like aunties and cousins -- and I had a chance to help them out with their move to Houston. It was about 10 or 15 family members and I helped them get a place to live, some food, and some transportation.

Picture this: one day you leave your house. Say you go to school or you go to work and you get off work and you go back and everything’s completely gone. You can’t get any possessions. You can’t get any food. You can't get anything. Can you imagine that? That’s a difficult situation. That’s the situation they were in. They had to get up and go. Everything was destroyed.

We as NBA players, we're blessed to be in our situation and a lot of us help. When tragedies like this happen, you have so many players get behind these types of tragedies and donate their time and donate their money, I don’t think things of that nature are really put to the forefront at all times.

I know everybody talks about the Gilbert Arenas incident, and don’t get me wrong I talk about it too. I think it’s a shame. The ownership, the management, they’re not behind him. They’re trying to void his contract. They’re not supporting him after all he’s done for the organization. They know what type of guy he is. They know he’s never had a bad rap or a bad reputation. He just made a mistake. I don’t really see like a support system around there for him. It’s a messed up situation.

But it’s bigger than that.

Guns aren’t things that you’re supposed to play around with. You look around and you see how many kids and how many adults die from gun violence every day. That’s not something to play around with. He’s going to learn from it. He’s seeing the repercussions from it. He’s suspended. He could go to jail. His whole life could change.

It’s not a joke. People don’t joke like that. You hear stories about guns just going off on people. Look at what happened to Plaxico Burress. Nothing good comes from showing off guns.
Tragedies happen to even the most innocent. You don’t have to be a thug, you don’t have to be a criminal, you don’t have to be a bad guy. Stray bullets hit kids all the time. You see kids playing with guns, and by accident, they shoot their father or the mother or their sister or their brother. Or themselves. And you never think it could happen.

But if a tragedy does happen to you and you live to talk about it, your life changes. I hope it changes you. I hope so.

For me, everything changed. My life changed.

After I was stabbed, I was in the hospital laying there, I had a whole different outlook on life. I had to be more careful about who I hung around with, about the places I went. I thought about my family. My friends. I value them a lot more because it’s like at any moment, it could have been over for me.

I was 22-years old and I hadn’t even accomplished many of the things I wanted to accomplish in life. With a blink of an eye, my life could have ended.

I was just thankful that I was able to live through it. You see how people get stabbed or shot one time and die from it. I was stabbed NINE TIMES and was able to talk about it.

It changes you. You’re aware of your surroundings and everything. You grow up so much faster when you go through something tragic. It definitely changes you as a person. You look at life differently.

You never think something tragic can happen to you. You always see it and you think it could never happen to you. You think that’s stuff that happened on the news or happened on the movies, but it could never happen to you. But that’s life.

It was traumatizing for me for a while. I woke up in cold sweats. I had nightmares about it. Some people, it takes a while to get over. Some people move on.

It took me a couple years. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I didn’t want to talk to people too much. I tried to isolate myself. It was like I was scared to go places. Especially in Boston. I used to have security at my house 24 hours a day. It was traumatizing for me. I used to jump in my sleep, wake up in the middle of the night. It was a lot of that. Just picturing the whole moment. Having nightmares about it. There was a lot of that.

I had to grow and learn.

After my experience, I was really appreciative of the care I received at Tufts Medical Center. Because I had minimally invasive surgery, I was able to get back on the court a month later, so I worked with them and we opened the Paul Pierce Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery and I sit on the hospital's Board of Governors."

You wish you didn’t have to learn that way. But it could happen to anybody. You say to yourself, "I wish I was a little more cautious." But you don’t know. Who knows? Who knows when an earthquake is going to hit? Who knows when a tsunami’s going to hit? Who knows when something tragic might happen? Who knows?

All you can do is learn from it and do whatever you can. In Haiti's case, please offer as much help as possible.

As told to Globe reporter Julian Benbow.

Paul Pierce's FitClub34 by Harvard Pilgrim is a Truth Fund program providing children with the information, resources, and tools necessary to become more active and physically fit. To learn more, visit www.truthonhealth.org

Kevin and I actually played together when we were in high school.

He played on my traveling team. I even got to bring him to my home in Inglewood! My AAU coach found Kev and talked him into coming and playing with us. Kevin had heard about me, but he hadn't seen me play at the time.

We wanted him to come to Vegas with us for this tournament because we thought it would put us over the top. We made it to the championship and lost for like three straight years.

Paul Pierce (left) and Kevin Garnett together during the 2009 playoffs in April. (Jim Davis / Globe Staff)

I guess my coach had met him at Nike camp. He came out and stayed with me and my moms. He was with me and he was talking about moving schools and I was trying to get him to come out to Inglewood that next year, because he was moving to South Carolina.

Then when we first established our relationship and it's funny, after that he just jumped ship.

The next year we're seniors. Then we go to McDonalds All-American. Next thing you know, he's already in the NBA.

I'm like, "Man!"

I didn't even know that was possible at the time.

Moses Malone, Darryl Dawkins. Those guys did it, but that was what it was like in the '70s, right? We didn't even know that was possible.

I'm not sure of the story, but I think that Isiah Thomas told KG he could go straight into the NBA Draft. I'm not sure, but I do recall he was one of the ones who informed him he could go into the draft and that he would be a top pick.

Next thing you know, he's in the league. And the rest is history, but I'll tell you one thing. I'm sure glad we got to play together again, even if we did have to wait almost 10 years

Jayhawks! Uh oh!
The last time the Kansas Jayhawks won it, we won it! Uh oh!

That's all I'm gonna say. I'm looking for the Jayhawks to do something special.

Paul Pierce's FitClub34 by Harvard Pilgrim is a Truth Fund program providing children with the information, resources, and tools necessary to become more active and physically fit. To learn more, visit www.truthonhealth.org

Celtics captain Paul Pierce blogs exclusively on Boston.com's Celtics Blog. He'll offer his insight and opinions on basketball, his life and other topics in occasional installments.

So, David Stern, Barack Obama and I walk into a bar ... 

... nah, not really. But you never know.

Anyway, I did get to thinking about what I'd do if I had their power for a day (or, you know, in my own case, if I had more self control). I'd definitely do things a little differently. This is what I came up with.

Three things I'd change about the league:

1. I'd get rid of the age minimum: I don't know why they have it. I think if you're a pro, you're a pro. And if a team wants to draft you and you're good enough, you should be able to go no matter what age you are. You see it overseas, guys are pros at 14, 15, 16 years old. You've got to give everybody an opportunity.


2. Shorten the season to 60 games: Every year somebody gets hurt. That's a combination of wear and tear in preseason games and regular season games.


3. Raise the rim three inches: The athletes today are crazy. You see the way guys are jumping these days. I would raise the rim three inches. Then, you have to learn the art of the jump shot. You'll have to know how to play this game a little bit better then. Raising the rim, you'll see improved play. You'll see increasing fundamentals. I'm telling you.

Two things I'd change about the world:

1. Every person who goes to war, when they come back, they get a free house -- no taxes: I was talking about this the other day, about what happens to people who go to war. When they come back a lot of them are on the streets. A lot of them get certain benefits, but the adjustment they make, it's crazy.


2. Fight poverty: By no means did I grow up rich. When I moved to Inglewood, we lived with my auntie for a year. Then we got a one bedroom apartment -- me, my mom, and my brother stayed in. Then, when I got older, we were able to make a little bit of money, because my brother got drafted by the San Francisco Giants. He bought my mom like a $100,000 house with his signing bonus. That really helped us out. Got us out of a really bad neighborhood that we were in.

One thing I'd change about myself.

1. My craving for chocolate: I can't be around chocolate. Mainly, chocolate ice cream and cake. I'm trying to encourage kids to be fit, to live a healthy lifestyle, and not to have the cravings. But I tell them, there's nothing wrong with having what you crave one day a week, just not all the time. And that's the truth. One last thing: thanks to all the people who commented and followed my Twitter handle @paulpierce34 after yesterday's post.
   

Paul Pierce's FitClub34 by Harvard Pilgrim is a Truth Fund program providing children with the information, resources, and tools necessary to become more active and physically fit. To learn more, visit www.truthonhealth.org

Today Celtics captain Paul Pierce begins blogging exclusively on Boston.com's Celtics Blog. He'll offer his insight and opinions on basketball, his life and other topics in occasional installments.

I guess the obvious question is, "Why am I doing this?"

I've put a lot out there about myself for Celtics fans and for Paul Pierce fans in the past. You all know who I am as a basketball player and a Boston Celtic.

But for me, blogging is going to give me a chance to let other people get to know me even better, which is what I really want. When I'm done with this game I want people to know more about Paul Pierce as a person than just as a basketball player.

When I retire I don't want people to just talk about my accomplishments on the court. When I'm done playing I want them to really know about me, about my life and what I do to make a difference in my community and the positive impact I try to have on other people.

I've been in Boston for 12 years. At this point, I probably know this city better than where I grew up in Inglewood, Calif. I've been here so long. (It took me like 6-7 years to really learn this city with all these rotaries, but hey ... ).

Now I feel like Boston is MY city. I have embraced it and I love it.

I still remember the day I got drafted. In my mind, there was no way I was ending up in Boston. I had only worked out for the top five teams in the NBA Draft that year. But on draft night I slipped to 10.

When Boston called my name, I felt so many mixed emotions. At first, I was kind of upset that I went to Boston -- don't forget now, growing up as a Lakers fan in LA, this was a team that I hated! Then I remember seeing how Scott, a close friend of mine, who I consider an uncle/father, reacted to the news. He just started clapping and said. "That's right! This is where we wanted to be!"

So I thought, "You know what. You're absolutely right." These other teams didn't want me and this was the team that did want me. I wanted to be somewhere with a team that wanted me. And my dream to be in the NBA was just realized. Plus all those banners and trophies certainly didn't hurt!

I remember a couple years ago -- the summer I signed an extension -- I was talking with my mom and my brother about the possibility of going to play in other cities, maybe trying to win somewhere else. It was something that I was always talking about with the people closest to me. And it was crazy because my mom said to me, "You've already started building something special over there in Boston."

I had great friends here, knew the restaurants, the hotels, the club owners. I was really comfortable, you get so used to it. When I moved from Oakland to LA -- I think I was 8 or 9 years old -- and it was traumatic because I thought I lost everything I knew, all my friends all the relationships I had built. It's like you're starting over, and you think about that. 

She said, "The grass ain't always greener on the other side."

And everybody says it, but when you think about it, just because you go somewhere else, that doesn't mean that things are going to be better. She was just reminding me how I built something in Boston and how I should ride it out.

That made me change my whole attitude about the situation. I was a captain of the team. I was making the All-Star team. She said to me, "Make change there. You're going to have your ups and downs, but it's going to turn around eventually. You be the one to make change!"

And she was right.

I'm so glad I was able to sign an extension that year. I was so close to testing free agency. And then I just knew I was here to stay, that Boston is my city and I love it.

It's funny because I asked Kevin (Garnett) where he wants his number retired. He's going to be one of the greatest players to ever play this game. He started in Minnesota. He won his championship in Boston. The same thing with Ray. He spent so many years in Milwaukee.

And it's like where do you want to be remembered?

I've been in an amazing position to say that I'm going to be linked 100 percent to the Boston Celtics.

To say that I've played with only one franchise, and accomplished what we have, it's almost like a miracle. You don't see that any more. You don't see the same players staying with the same team like that. I'm a true follower of the game and only five guys have played for one team for 10-plus years, especially in the last 10. There's Tim, Kobe, Ilgauskas, Nowitzki, and me.

You're always going to associate Kobe with the Lakers. You're always going to associate Timmy with San Antonio. Those guys won championships for their teams and they've been there their whole career.

You look around the league and see a lot of great players. You have some Hall of Famers that have been on multiple teams and you think at the end of the day, which team do they represent? And I can definitely say I am a Boston Celtic through and through. When people look back at my career they're going to identify me with one team.

Boston is definitely home. 

Paul Pierce's FitClub34 by Harvard Pilgrim is a Truth Fund program providing children with the information, resources, and tools necessary to become more active and physically fit. To learn more, visit www.truthonhealth.org