A Pierce of work: Celts rookie is drawing the spotlight

[Vinny Natale <vnatale@map.com>]

A Pierce of work: Celts rookie is drawing the spotlight

by Steve Bulpett Friday, February 12, 1999 MIAMI -- When Paul Pierce finished practice yesterday, he was taken into a small dark room by three men. While the rest of the Celtics boarded their bus and headed back to their hotel, the men shined a bright light in Pierce's face and asked him questions. Paul Pierce, four NBA games old, is suspected of being a star. The men, detectives if you will, were from Turner Broadcasting. They let Pierce tell his side of the story and they will release their report on cable TV most likely on Tuesday. The evidence thus far speaks for itself -- his fourth-quarter performances have set up both Celtic victories -- and there is every reason to suggest Pierce will be a repeat offender. In other words, he'd better get used to the media inquiries, the dark rooms and the bright lights. ``To be honest, the publicity really doesn't faze me,'' Pierce said while being fazed more by some chest congestion. ``I'm a cool type of guy. I'm more laid back. I don't know. I mean, it doesn't really get to my head. ``I feel like the only thing I'm doing is going out and playing basketball and doing my job. Then all this media comes around and you get all this attention, which is good, but I just feel like if I can continue to do my job, it's really nothing to me. I just feel like I'm playing basketball.'' Lest you begin believing this is merely the blissful ignorance of youth speaking, the Los Angeles-raised and Kansas-schooled rookie reveals that he is well aware of the dangers that lurk behind smiling stories in the newspapers and on television. He just doesn't think any of that is going to apply to him. ``I think it could be a problem for certain players who always read the paper and see their name and get satisfied,'' Pierce said. ``But, see, I'm not one of those players who's going to relax because I'm doing well. I think it kind of inspires me to work even harder because I want to be at the top one day, and the only way to do that is to work hard. So, if I can continue to work hard and be successful at what I'm doing, I can go a long way in this game. ``I don't ever want to be satisfied.'' And while Pierce doesn't think the huzzahs he's already drawing are necessarily fair, he's not running from them either. ``High expectations are pressure,'' he said. ``But for me, I like the pressures of having the high expectations. I feel like I can go out there and play my game, and, I think, I play well under pressure. ``And when people expect you to do things and you're not successful, I don't put my head down. I just go out there and play the game of basketball the way it's supposed to be played, and that's 100 percent.'' A draft day shock Speaking of expectations, none was greater than the one Pierce had on draft night last June when he was figuring he'd go well before the Celtics selected at No. 10. The Celts were more than a little curious, too, when the 6-foot-7 swingman began slipping. ``That was a strange night,'' said assistant coach Lester Conner. ``I had just been hired, and I'm sitting there in the war room at the FleetCenter with coach (Rick) Pitino and Red Auerbach and all these other important people. I was kind of nervous as it was, and then when it was getting near our pick, coach turned to me and asked me why Paul wasn't being taken. He asked if there was anything wrong with him. ``I looked around and all the eyes were on me. I just said, `Well, I played with him and a bunch of NBA guys in the summer (in Los Angeles), and Paul was the second-best player in the gym behind Earvin (Magic Johnson).' Then I said, `And when he gets to know what he needs to know, you'd have to think he might be better than Earvin.' No one said a thing, then Rick got up and went out and made the announcement that we were taking Paul.'' The question then - and now - is why he fell so far. The word is still out that Pierce did not do well in workouts with individual teams, but he insists that was not the case. ``I don't think that was true at all,'' Pierce said. ``We talked to the teams, and each team, if you asked them individually, they said I had great workouts. I knocked down a lot of shots and I did the drills they asked me without ever getting tired. It wasn't the fact I was out of shape. I came out of school and I worked really hard before the workouts. I had (Kansas) coach (Roy) Williams ask them what happened, and they told him I was in shape and had good workouts but it was a situation where the team didn't feel that I would fit in.'' The best revenge Regardless of whether Pierce agreed with the word on the NBA street, he decided to use the perceived slights as a springboard. If teams were going to question is work ethic, he was bound to make them question their judgment. He would call out the name of a team that passed on him when he'd shoot on his own. It's the way he's always done things. ``It definitely did get me working even harder,'' Pierce said. ``There were times I was in the gym late at Inglewood High School all by myself. I used it for inspiration. ``I mean, I know these other guys that were picked ahead of me, I'm better than them or just as good as them. And I felt like I should have been one of the top players. ``So it did inspire me to work that much harder. I said to myself, `Maybe I didn't work hard enough. I mean, what was it that I could have done to improve myself in the draft?' I kept asking myself those questions. ``The thing I did was go back and re-evaluate my game. A lot of guys said I couldn't play the 2 (shooting guard) in the NBA and that I was undersized for a 3 (small forward). ``But, you know, I write all these things down and I look at them all the time. I've written things down a lot, and there was one time in college when I made third team All-Conference, and I hung the certificate on my locker just for motivation, just for me to work that much harder. ``When they say I can't do this and I can't do that, it makes me work even harder.'' A feeling of belonging Larry Bird said he knew after the first couple of training camp days in 1979 that he belonged in the NBA. He said he knew after a couple of regular-season games that he could be a pretty good player in the league. Everyone - no matter how great their college career - wonders what life will be like when they take the step up to the NBA. Paul Pierce didn't necessarily have any doubts, but he had some questions. The process of finding his place began soon after he was out of Kansas. ``I think for me it started over the summer,'' Pierce said. ``I played with a lot of NBA guys and Magic Johnson, and then I played in a couple of charity games against (former UConn star) Ray Allen and some guys like that. ``I know those guys weren't playing much defense all the time, but at times they would go hard and I was able to still do things. It helped my confidence to think I played against some of the other top players, and I was thinking that when these guys, these All-Stars, scattered to their individual teams, I had a feeling I could do well in the league.'' There were the days at the UCLA gym and the time Pitino happened by and watched him put on a brilliant shooting exhibition on the side. But while he devours practice time and understands its importance, Pierce will readily tell you his game gets even better when you throw some light and some people on it. ``I really believe that,'' he said. ``When I get in a game, I feel like I can jump a lot higher than if I'm just out here trying to do a dunk. And I think I shoot a lot better in a game than in practice. ``I'm one of those game players who rises to the occasion and loves the crowd and the other team against you - that's just something I live for.'' Because he does, he must also find time in his basketball life for feature interviews with national television outlets and magazines. Paul Pierce says he is ready. He says Magic Johnson taught him a lot about the game during their workouts, and his game appears to be in fine shape. He has handled the NBA well, thus far. Now he gets to handle stardom.