Paul Pierce has one more season left in him. Pierce announced he will retire from the NBA following the 2016-17 season in a story on the Players Tribune on Monday.
Paul Pierce announces he will play 1 more season, then retire
Pierce is hanging around for one more NBA season.
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Pierce, who turns 39 is October, is set to retire as one of the greatest scorers of his generation. The 10-time All-Star currently sits No. 16 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 26,316 points. He will return to the Clippers for a 19th season before hanging it up.
Pierce entered the league as the No. 10 pick in the 1998 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. He would play 15 seasons for the Celtics, becoming the franchise’s leader in three-pointers and steals, and finishing second in scoring behind John Havlicek. Pierce was often the lone bright spot for Boston early in his career until offseason trades for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen made Boston NBA champions in 2008 after missing the playoffs one year earlier.
The 2008 Finals persist as the highlight of Pierce’s legendary career. As the Celtics beat the Lakers in six games, Pierce was named Finals MVP as he averaged 21.8 points, 6.3 assists, and 4.5 rebounds per game. Pierce would help the Celtics get back to the Finals in 2010, but the Lakers would get their revenge in seven games.
Pierce and Garnett were traded to the Brooklyn Nets ahead of the 2013-14 season. The Nets would win 44 games and reach the second round of the playoffs, but Brooklyn’s experiment was ultimately a failure given the heavy price of draft picks they had to surrender. Pierce would sign with the Washington Wizards the next season. His stint in Washington included a banked-in buzzer-beater in Game 3 of a first-round playoff series against the Hawks. Asked if he called glass after the shot, Pierce said “I called game.“
Pierce rejoined former coach Doc Rivers with the Clippers last season, but his game was in clear decline. Pierce played in 68 games, averaging only 6.1 points per game on 36 percent shooting. It was the first time in his career he was not a double-digit scorer.
Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Kevin Garnett are gone, but the NBA still gets one more season of Paul Piece. You can expect a big night in Boston when the Clippers visit the Celtics on Feb. 5.
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