BOSTON — The rumbles inside TD Garden started early in the third quarter after the Los Angeles Clippers elected not to start Paul Pierce in the second half.
We want Paul! We want Paul!
The fans who turned out for Piece’s final game at TD Garden wanted one last glimpse of one of their most cherished legends. And for much of the 67 minutes of real time that elapsed during the second half of Sunday’s game, Boston fans let former coach Doc Rivers know about it.
We want Paul Pierce! We want Paul Pierce!
Every stoppage in play was another chance to chant, each time in a difference cadence. Never before had video reviews been so embraced by an NBA fan base. By late in the fourth quarter, with the Celtics seemingly in control of what would be their seventh straight victory, fans were in a full lather trying to coax Rivers into subbing Pierce back in for the final moments.
Paul Pierce! Paul Pierce! Paul Pierce!
And then it happened. Pierce stood up on the Clippers sideline after Blake Griffin had fouled Al Horford in the closing moments of the fourth quarter and started walking towards the scorer’s table as the crowd roared.
It probably would have been enough to simply see Pierce wave goodbye from the parquet floor. Or to watch him kneel down and kiss Lucky the Leprechaun one more time before throwing his headband into the crowd and disappearing into a sea of well-wishers clogging the path to the visitor’s locker room.
But considering the theatrics of Pierce’s time in Boston, that would be much too boring. So Pierce stepped into a 28-foot 3-pointer, held his follow through high, and watched it slam through the cylinder with 11 seconds to go.
Pierce, a sheepish smile on his face, had avoided going scoreless in his final game at an arena where he had never endured such a failure over 630 career games. And Boston fans couldn’t have been more delirious over the storybook ending.
Thank you, Paul Pierce! Thank you, Paul Pierce!
When Pierce finally made it to his postgame press conference, having greeted all the familiar faces from his time in Boston, he was asked if he feared for the safety of Rivers because he didn’t put him back in earlier.
“I was like, if Doc doesn’t put me back in here he might get lynched, I don’t know,” cracked Pierce. “They might throw him off the top of this building. No, me and Doc talked about it, though. It was perfect. I haven’t been playing a lot anyway, but it was good for Doc to put me in one last time, and I was able to give the fans one last shot.”
Asked why he put Pierce back in, Rivers deadpanned, “Because the fans made me. I mean, I’m no dummy.”
Turning more serious, he added, “No, I was going to anyway, but you know, you felt like [it was] the mob. … The objective was to win the game, obviously, and we didn’t do that. So once I thought the game was in-hand to Boston, we put him back in. And him making that shot — that’s just, I don’t know what the heck that is. That only happens here [in Boston]. I don’t know who can sit that long and walk in on the floor and make a shot. … For Paul, that was perfect. That was perfect.”
Rivers got emotional at his postgame press conference trying to put into words what the experience meant for Pierce and for his entire team. Rivers was adamant that this experience will help his team because his players got a chance to see just how revered you can be when you deliver a title to your city.
But considering the journey that Pierce and Rivers have been on for the past 15 years, Sunday’s game really resonated with Rivers.
“The crowd was amazing. They are amazing,” said Rivers. “It’s amazing how many of our players made comments about it, like ‘Wow! These people are amazing.’ And they are. And I said something before the game about Paul, and it got emotional. It was just — it was awesome.”
Pierce, who had played just one time since Christmas, was the final player introduced for the Clippers before Sunday’s game and received an extended standing ovation. As Clippers players huddled up, teammates encouraged Pierce to perform his familiar pregame ritual — something they had done just one other time in a spot start. Pierce obliged, playfully pretending to take bets from his teammates before his trademark dice roll that ends with him scooping up all the fictional money on the court. Pierce saluted the crowd as the ovation continued as he returned to the bench area.
Truth! Truth! Truth!
Before the opening tip, Pierce knelt to the floor and gave a kiss to the Lucky the Leprechaun logo at center court, one of the few things he had said Saturday he wanted to do during his last visit to Boston. Maybe it helped will in that final basket because Pierce went back for a second smooch after the final buzzer.
Pierce’s only other shot attempt was the first play of the game but his 15-foot jumper rattled out. Boston’s new go-to scorer Isaiah Thomas seemed to pay homage to Pierce by mimicking his lean-and-hold pose after hitting a first-quarter 3-pointer over Boston’s captain.
At the game’s first timeout, a minute-long tribute video rolled with highlights from Pierce’s career in Boston. It covered everything from draft night to Pierce’s early years (including his trash-talking jumper over Al Harrington in the 2003 playoffs), and his presence in the community. It fast-forwarded to the Big Three era with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and Pierce’s MVP performance in the 2008 Finals before culminating with the message, “Thank you, Paul.”
The camera lingered on the 2008 title banner in the rafters then cut to the spot where Pierce’s No. 34 jersey will reside someday soon. An emotional Pierce, tears in his eyes, stood up from the bench and acknowledged the Garden crowd, waving and blowing kisses in every direction.
The chills-inducing sequence seemed like it might never end, and fans cheered louder each time the giant video screen displayed another sign in the crowd thanking Pierce for what he meant to the organization.
“It was just the showering of love in here, man,” Pierce said of becoming emotional. “I don’t get an every-arena shower of love like Kobe [Bryant] did in his farewell tour, so this was like my last goodbye, not only for the Celtics but pretty much to the NBA. This is like my appreciation day, I felt like — a national television game right here [18] years ago started my first game on Feb. 5, 1999 [and] ended off Feb. 5, 2017. All those things running through your mind.
“The love they were able to give me, and I’m like, ‘This is it.’ That’s all I was thinking is this is my last time on this floor getting the opportunity to run up and down the floor. The next time I do it, I’ll probably be in an old man’s league that plays before the games. You know those scrimmage games they play before the game at 3 o’clock? But just to be able to be out here as a player — everywhere you look you saw No. 34 jerseys. Everywhere I looked I saw Pierce shirts, posters. It was just beautiful to watch and be a part of this and be a part of the Celtics franchise.”
Pierce, dressed in his New England Patriots hooded sweatshirt and ready to go watch the Super Bowl (he predicted a final score of Patriots 37, Falcons 31), bid farewell to the media and said the next time we’d see him in the Garden, he’d be a fan.
But the fans will still probably chant for him then, too.
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