BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD?

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I met Paul Pierce a few years back when I was working out players to test their draft readiness for an agent. He was out in L.A. shooting around with that smooth and effortless stroke that the league now fears. As I studied his stroke and flashed back to watching him as a star at Kansas, I felt he was one of the best offensive talents I had ever seen. But I wasn’t impressed with his defense coming out of college. I told him that. But, after seeing him dismantle Kobe and LeBron last year in the NBA playoffs while defending at a high level, I’m starting to feel his opinion. 

 ”I’m the best player in the world,” Paul said last summer after he won the championship. The build-up started back in 2006, when he went on a month long mission, scoring 30 or better in 13 out of 14 games. In the 2007-08 playoffs, Pierce scored 41 on LeBron, to clinch the Eastern Conference and finished the Lakers off with a tremendous display of footwork that had Kobe off-balance and shaking his head with no answers.

Pierce’s achievements on offense actually stem from his commitment to becoming a better defender at the beginning of last year. A blog report by Oly Sandor from Hoopsvibe.com in August of 2007 spoke of Pierce’s focus on defensive conditioning as the key.

”I’m focusing on my defense, being able to guard all three positions,” he said. “The stuff I think about is if I have to go to shooting guard and defend and take pressure off Ray [Allen]. I don’t need that much extra weight. I just want the footwork and quickness to guard shooting guards.”

Kobe Bryant confirmed this in an interview by saying that “Pierce’s footwork is the best in the NBA.” While Kobe was talking strictly from an offensive perspective, it was the extra defensive off-season work that made his all-around game better.

A November, 2008 Dime Magazine blog asked the question: Who is the best perimeter scorer in the NBA this year? Both Pierce and Kobe were mentioned four times in the seven offensive categories outlined. Check: 
http://dimemag.com/2008/11/best-nba-scorer-lebron-james-kobe-bryant-carmelo-anthony-paul-pierce-chris-paul/#comments.

As an ex-professional player, the one thing you don’t want to see is a player with the ability to shoot the ball when stepping directly at you quickly or with the ability to slide sideways and shoot off the dribble. Pierce does this varying his strides with short steps in the middle of long strides. This off the dribble prowess destroys defenders who attempt to measure offensive rhythm and tendencies.

Now that he’s added defense to his well-known offensive prowess, he’s not far from his claim that he is the best player because he has won on the highest level. And while Pierce hasn’t made the NBA All-Defensive team in his career, his defensive achievements when it counted last year shows that he has what it takes to play championship-caliber ball.

This story is filed under: 45 Degrees of Blackness, Sports

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