He may have grown up in the shadow of the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles (where the Showtime Lakers played), but Paul Pierce is a Boston guys now.
So much so that after he retires from basketball — probably after two more seasons with Brooklyn — he wants to retire and work in Boston.
That’s what Pierce told Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.“Ultimately, what I would like to do is have a business in Boston,” he said. “Maybe like a sports bar. I would love to do something like that here. None of the former Celtic great players have come and done that. I thought about it, and why hasn’t anyone come and opened up a nice restaurant? You see the Don Shula restaurant, the Michael Jordan restaurant, and Magic [Johnson] got the theaters in LA. Why nobody here? All this history, all these championships and love, why has nobody done that?
“I am going to still have relationships here. I’m always going to come to this city. Every year, when I’m done, I’m going to have a reason to come here.”
Pierce may spend the last couple years of his playing career in Brooklyn and may fall in love eating at Beast or Roberta’s, but that’s not where his heart is. He is a Bostonian now.
He should even have some kind of relationship with the Celtics again down the line. Not some formal position, just a relationship. He’s a part of the Celtics heritage — and he wants to remain a part of it. As it should be.