With Saturday marking the kickoff of the NBA playoffs, basketball fans are taking a harder look at their teams’ players. The New York Knicks face the Boston Celtics in the Knicks’ first time in the playoffs since 2004. Amidst all the hype, Boston’s Paul Pierce is finding himself under a critical eye.
The starting forward has long been a team favorite—he’s one of only three players who have scored more than 20,000 points during a career with the Celtics alone. Now, Pierce is widely considered the team star, the same way Kobe Bryant is to the Los Angeles Lakers, or Derrick Rose for the Chicago Bulls. While the same argument could be made for Kevin Garnett or Ray Allen, it’s Pierce who most often has the ball during crunch time at the end of important games. This could work against the Celtics in a way, though; is Pierce too predictable as the team’s knight in shining armor? It could be time for Boston to choose a new hero, maybe even before they step on court with the Knicks.
