The Captain and the conversation

I have been saying Paul Pierce is the best player in the NBA for years now.

When I’ve told people my opinion in the past, they stop arguing and get this look on their face. The kind of look you give a kid who is just a little too old to still believe that Superman is real or that Santa Claus brought them all of those presents. The person would then give me a few condescending nods, offer me some milk and rub my back, and change the subject.

Funny thing happened when I brought this point up after Paul Pierce did his best superhero act again last night, nailing down a second consecutive victory in the fourth quarter with a last-second jumper. My friends and I got in a heated argument on the topic that started as back-and-forth banter and ended with an all-out, online, career-comparing debate of the best players in the NBA.

The difference now is that he is in the conversation. Paul Pierce has shot his way into the “Who are the top 5 players in the league?” conversation.

The fact that Pierce had to consistently work for years to be in the conversation makes his arrival into the group of the league’s elite players even more remarkable. If you compare Pierce to the rest of the upper-echelon players in the NBA, physically, Pierce isn’t equipped with the same natural gifts that the others have. He doesn’t have the explosive leaping ability of LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. He doesn’t have the blazing speed of Chris Paul. I would say that no other top player in the league has less extraordinary athletic ability than Pierce with the exception of Tim Duncan. And he is 6-feet-11-inches with a 40-foot wingspan (approximately).

The point is that because of these physical gifts, mixed with the hype surrounding each of these players receives coming into the NBA, the “best in the league” status became a kind of country club of sorts. Hype and highlights early on got you in, but if you weren’t dunking on people or dropping 40 points a night (no matter how many shots it took to get there) the club wasn’t accepting any members. The only exception to this rule I can think of is Steve Nash. Nash wasn’t hyped coming out of college and had to play his way into the national spotlight, and eventually won back-to-back MVP awards. However, Nash is such an absolute liability on the defensive end of floor I don’t believe he should be in the discussion of the league’s best players.

During last year’s championship run, a lot was made about how Pierce has matured and grown as a man, but I have always believed that the stories about his “problems” in the past were grossly overexaggerated by a media that largely didn’t pay attention to him until something went wrong. For example, after the 2002 World Basketball Championships in Indianapolis and then the infamous incident in the playoffs against the Pacers, Pierce was painted as a selfish player by the mainstream media. I just think he hates the state of Indiana. I mean, who doesn’t?

In all seriousness, the stories didn’t match the facts. Check out the Celtics all-time stats. In Celtics history Pierce is seventh in scoring, second in scoring average, 10th in assists and field goals made, and ninth in minutes. However, he doesn’t crack the top 10 in field goals attempted or games played. If he has been a selfish player his whole career, how is it he has more assists and minutes than Celtics greats, but in fewer games?

I agree Paul Pierce has had his off-the-floor issues -- the stabbing, the partying, rumblings that he may have wanted to be traded. I do not agree with the media’s propensity to bleed these issues onto the court and make Pierce out to be a selfish player and a bad teammate. No players or coaches, past or present, to my knowledge have come out on record or even anonymously, to question him as a teammate. Did Pierce’s body language and demeanor improve with the addition of Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and championship hopes? Sure. But it wasn’t exactly the huge turnaround that some media outlets made it out to be.

Pierce’s attitude may have improved some, but it his game that has really matured. This was no coincidence. Pierce worked painstakingly on the flaws in his game and got better, on a team that got consistently worse. He improved his shot selection, free-throw shooting, post-up game, and ball handling. Always an underrated defender, he increased his commitment, and made himself into a lock-down perimeter defender, taking on the likes of James and Bryant when one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, James Posey, wasn’t getting the job done.

(Don’t believe me? Watch the tapes. See who covered LeBron in Game 7 and Kobe in the Finals when it mattered. Posey was in the game to stop LeBron late in the fourth quarter of Game 6 and LeBron blew by him and delivered the “no regard for human life” dunk that forced Game 7. Posey and Tony Allen took turns on the big scorers when Pierce needed a rest. Pierce covered Kobe and the King when it counted.)

He put up Kobe-like numbers on awful teams. Bryant’s career averages are 25 points, 4.6 assists, and 5.3 rebounds per game. Pierce’s career averages are 23.1 points, 3.9 assists, and 6.4 rebounds per game. They are even in steals, and Pierce shoots a better percentage from behind the arc. And beyond stats, I believe that what he showed in the playoffs last year and what he has shown early this season, Pierce has to be the first guy you would pick to take the last shot of a big game in the NBA today.

The bottom line is that Paul Pierce wasn’t let into the country club of the elite players in the NBA, and without the hype and high-flying histrionics maybe he never will be an official member. But with his own hard work, newly acquired hardware, and reputation as Captain Clutch, he has forced himself into the conversation.

So now people won’t give you that look when you talk about Pierce being one of the NBA’s best. And if they do, tell them that Santa Claus might not be coming to town, but Superman is real. And he just stepped out of the phone booth. Again.