Dwyane Wade is finishing up his farewell tour with Miami in the coming days (the Heat have some work to do to make the playoffs). That has led to a lot of retrospectives and deserved love for Wade as he walks out the door. And on ESPN’s countdown, they were comparing Wade to other greats (was he better than Isiah Thomas, for example), when the topic turned to Paul Pierce.
Guess which side Pierce took.
Pierce is a Hall of Famer — four All-NBA teams, 10-time All-Star, and he has a ring — but better than Wade? Better than the third-best shooting guard of all time? They were not letting him slide on the show.
Then NBA Twitter had a field day. Starting with Gabrielle Union (Wade’s wife).
This @paulpierce34 thing is wrong on many obvious levels but what I find most troublesome is this idea of a man trying to diminish another man that looks like him, was raised like him, in order to shine a tad brighter. Shit isnt entertaining, it's sad. ❤ & 💡good people.
— Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) April 6, 2019
Paul Pierce "go check my Youtube highlights."
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 6, 2019
Me: Alright, bet. pic.twitter.com/lwVxSQtshh
And there were reminders about this.
But Pierce had his backers.
What made @paulpierce34 The Truth was he believed in himself more than anyone. Wasn’t the best shooter. Wasn’t most athletic. Wasn’t the tallest. But he was as competitive as anyone I ever covered in 20 years, Kobe, KG, LeBron, Draymond, etc. 34 was driven by the odds against him
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) April 6, 2019
Everyone's dunking on Pierce tonight, but.... there are a lot of numbers that kind of support him.
— John Karalis 🇬🇷🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) April 6, 2019
Situation matters. It took a long time for Paul Piece to get a really good team around him. Wade has rings. That's obviously big. But the Pierce case v. Wade is not bad
If these two want to debate this more, they can do it in the Hall of Fame.