BOSTON >> It was a heck of a goodbye.
For hours on Sunday, Boston Celtics fans inside the TD Garden chanted Paul Pierce’s name, and in a matter of seconds, Pierce sent them home with a memory of a lifetime.
The 3-pointer Pierce swished in the final seconds didn’t change the outcome — a 107-102 Clippers loss — but it capped a Hall of Fame career that began 19 years ago to the date in the very same town.
It was the only basket Pierce made Sunday, but that didn’t matter. The final score didn’t matter much either.
From start to finish, Sunday’s game was about saying, “Farewell.”
“I’m glad it ended this way,” Pierce said.
The day before, Pierce, who will retire after this season, admitted that he had different hopes for his last chapter.
“I always wished I’d end my career playing for the Boston Celtics,” he said Saturday.
But things for Pierce, like his career, like the special moments on Sunday, have always managed to work out just fine.
He grew up Inglewood, steps away from The Forum, idolizing the Lakers. He attended Kansas, hoping to play himself into a top pick in the NBA Draft. He slid on draft night and found himself picked by a team that wasn’t even “on my radar,” he said.
Family members assured Pierce that everything happens for a reason.
Nineteen seasons later, Pierce walked into the Garden set to start at small forward for the Clippers — a ceremonial nod from Doc Rivers, who knows as well as anyone what Pierce means to the people of Boston.
That love started two hours before the game, when Pierce stopped for pictures and signed autographs as fans surrounded the tunnel to the Clippers’ locker room.
“I’m just soaking it all in,” he said before the game.
As Pierce took the court with the Clippers for warm-ups, the crowd, many of whom were wearing Pierce’s jersey, gave him a standing ovation.
The sellout crowd got on its feet again during the Clippers’ introductions, with Pierce holding his left hand high in the air to acknowledge the crowd. The crowd was ready to erupt again, but Pierce’s first shot, a mid-range jumper, rattled in and out.
As Pierce sat down after five minutes, the Celtics honored him with a video tribute on the scoreboard. As the cameras panned to Pierce, his eyes filled with tears as the crowd cheered louder and louder.
It was the moment of the night — until Pierce got back on the court.
In between the tributes and the amazing ending, the Clippers never could find their rhythm. Boston never trailed as the Clippers couldn’t make up for 16 made 3-point shots and 18 points scored off turnovers.
“You have to value the ball,” Blake Griffin said. “You have to be on the boards. You have to do all the little things.”
Pierce made a career in Boston doing the little things, but the last thing he did in the Garden, that was anything but small.
With the crowd chanting for Pierce to get back into the game, Rivers finally relented with 19.8 seconds left. The Clippers immediately got the ball to Pierce, who squared up from deep and swished home his final shot in the Garden from 28 feet. No shot in Pierce’s career ever meant nothing and everything quite like that one.
“It’s a tough situation, been sitting for like the last two hours, then had to come in there and get a shot,” Pierce said.
For the Clippers and Pierce it was a little awkward — celebrating a shot at the end of a loss.
“It was cool to see him start and get so much love he deserves from the fans here. It was a weird thing at the end of the game. You were happy for him, but we just lost,” Griffin said. “…These moments are special. There aren’t many guys who have played in this league who mean as much to a city as Paul Pierce means to Boston. To be a part of that and see that up close, it’s pretty special.”
The best goodbyes are special, the moments you take with you for the rest of your life — the lasting memories. And sometimes, they even turn into “thank yous.”
“I never felt anything like this,” Pierce said. “I truly appreciate my time here. I truly appreciate tonight. Fans really showered me with a lot of love.”
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
