Former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce takes pride in winning the 2008 championship against the Los Angeles Lakers. The former NBA player occasionally brings it up to reflect and demonstrate their ability to defeat any squad. The discussion about Pierce’s Celtics team was brought up on Monday’s episode of the “Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz,” where he talked about “breaking” the current Boston squad.
The Celtics’ 2024–25 squad is among the best-formed because of their star power, strong defense, and explosive attack. Even with that, Pierce believes his title team has what it takes to beat the modern team.
“I don’t know, we don’t know,” Pierce said on whether the current Celtics team is better than the 2008 team. “It’s d**n close, I ain’t gonna lie, this team is really good. But I will tell you this, our team, we knew how to break teams mentally. What we lacked in skill versus them, we had with will.”
“We gon’ turn it into a bar fight. This ain’t going to be no finessing… this is going to be body blow, body blow.”
Pierce was asked to select a specific player on the current squad that he would break by the show’s host, Dan Le Batard. But the MVP of the 2008 Finals made a jab at LeBron James by saying he would break his opponents.
“When you start getting guys in foul trouble in the first quarter… I’ve been known to break a few wills. Sent some of them from Cleveland to Miami.”
"This team is really good, but I will tell you this, our team we knew how to break teams mentally." @paulpierce34 on how his Boston Celtics teams would fare against today's Boston Celtics.
WATCH: https://t.co/0mH91SieKi pic.twitter.com/lNbiYVBqqO
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) December 2, 2024
Ultimately, he answered the question and said he’d mentally break everyone on the 2024 Celtics team.
Paul Pierce credits himself as the reason why James joined the Miami Heat
James joined the Miami Heat in 2010 to form a Big 3 alongside Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. The Celtics’ aging trio was matched by his transfer to Miami, which helped them win two NBA titles and four Eastern Conference titles.
But over the previous summer, Paul Pierce appeared on “Undisputed” and said that James joined other stars because of him.
“I truly feel responisble for taking LeBron to that next level,” the Hall of Famer said.
"I truly feel responsible for taking LeBron to that next level." – Paul Pierce pic.twitter.com/53VHuVRzAv
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 12, 2024
By the time James joined the Heat organization, the Big 3 of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen were in the twilight years of their careers. The only player at their peak in Boston at that time was point guard Rajon Rondo.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
