Following his comments about his career against Dwyane Wade’s, Paul Pierce has come under scrutiny.
Ray Allen appeared on “Sports Illustrated Now” and was asked if Pierce’s claims of superiority were valid. He played with Wade on the Miami Heat and Pierce on the Boston Celtics.
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Ray Allen joined @SInowLIVE and said that Paul Pierce’s recent comments on D-Wade “took away from [Pierce’s] greatness" pic.twitter.com/uynIvNWmA3
— The Crossover (@TheCrossover) April 17, 2019
“I just think that it’s hard to compare,” Allen said. “Those two guys are different players and you can’t compare statistics. What does that mean? D. Wade won three rings and Paul won one. It doesn’t make D. Wade better or worse, it’s just the situations are totally different. … That doesn’t get [Pierce] anywhere by saying that. It’s great that you love yourself but you gotta make sure that you pay homage to greatness when you see it. I think in that moment, was an opportunity just to celebrate D. Wade’s career and what he meant to the NBA.”
It’s hard to compare Wade and Pierce, but player comparisons are all the rage nowadays. It’s impossible to know how Pierce and Wade’s careers would have transpired in different situations. Therefore, it’s impossible to compare the two.
“Paul had a great career,” Allen continued. “There’s no taking away from the career that Paul had, but what he did was he entered the arena of now allowing people to start judging him. And it took away from his greatness and I don’t wanna take away from Paul’s greatness because he’s done great things in the league, he’s set standards and a tone. That’s what we have to get away from is trying to pit this player against that player and how we compare each other. It’s like, no, like let’s just look at what they’ve done individually and marvel at their impact in the league and just appreciate each individual for who they are.”
Allen hits the nail on the head. Obviously, fans and pundits love to have these debates, but they’re ultimately pointless. Pierce diminished his own accomplishments in the process of comparing himself to Wade.
Rather than discussing how Pierce and Wade are both all-time greats, the debate has turned into a convoluted discussion about how much help each player played with.
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