What would life be like if Paul Pierce wasn’t with the Boston Celtics through the rough times?
We nearly found out.
Speaking with Chris Mannix on The Vertical Podcast, Pierce explained that he tried to find his way to Dallas to play with Dirk Nowitzki when things weren't going well in Boston.
“If you can get me to Dallas, that’s where I wanted to go at the time,’ Pierce said. “I thought Dallas was a player like me away from winning. They were 50-game winners. Dirk was pretty much by himself. I even ran into Dirk and Mark Cuban that summer. It was like, ‘Mark, you’ve got to find a way to get me over there. I want to get over there. I think I could help you all get over the hump.'”
On Pregame Live, Chris Mannix says it was a good thing for Celtics fans that he ended up staying.
“You’ve got to remember, in-between the Antwan Walker era and the KG-Ray-Paul era there was a time Boston was really bad, the relationship between Doc Rivers and Paul Pierce wasn’t very good and that team in general was bad,” said Mannix. “It was true that Paul Pierce wanted to get out. Good thing he didn’t though, because there’s a banner in the rafters because of it.”