Paul Pierce Calls Out LeBron James, Other Young NBA Stars For Forming ‘Superteams’
Paul Pierce still doesn’t like it when superstars team up together to form a powerhouse team and by all indications still hates the likes of LeBron James and other NBA stars who get together for an easier path to NBA success.
"I still can't stand none of these guys, I want to beat all of them.” Pierce, who played for the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets in previous years but now joins the Washington Wizards as its veteran leader, said via an ESPN radio program, “Mike & Mike”.
"This is a different era," Pierce admitted in the same program. "Guys are playing a lot more together in the summer. You see more friendships in the league. It's not like in the '80s when you had enemies, or you couldn't stand this guy, and there were fights all the time.”
Pierce was drafted 10th overall by the Boston Celtics in the 1998 NBA Draft and spent his first 15 years with the franchise. Now 37 years old, Pierce has seen the best and the worst in Boston; being the franchise player without much help in the first nine seasons before finally getting support in 2007-2008 when the franchise landed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in separate trade transactions.
While considered a “powerhouse” team, the formation of Beantown’s “Big Three” was not criticised because it was the front office that was responsible and not the players themselves.
Pierce stated in the radio program that the stars today “all want to play with each other” and just short of accusing the new generation of NBA stars of collusion.
Pierce main target is of course LeBron James, who formed two superteams in his career; previously with the Miami Heat, joining Dwyane Wade in Florida and also recruiting Chris Bosh and even Ray Allen to the fold. James also returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier in the offseason to join star point guard Kyrie Irving even as the Ohio franchise aggressively pursued Kevin Love via trade.
Bosh and James was a free agent when they joined Miami in 2010; and James was again the celebrated free agent in 2014 while Love reportedly demanded to be traded to the Cavaliers in the same offseason.
By all indications, Paul Pierce is a real “old school player”, the one who prefers to compete against all odds rather than forming superteams to make their NBA lives easier. While Pierce is already past his prime, the Washington Wizards, featuring John Wall, Bradley Beal, Nene and other players are one of the rising teams in the Eastern Conference. Facing the superteam Cleveland Cavaliers led by LeBron James should be one of the more interesting story lines in the new NBA season.
