Some quotes from the selfish ball-hog.

["pmaurice" <damekmo@teleport.com>]

Again, I'm feeling very Way-like this morning. Some quotes for the "selfish
ball-hog" critics. I know you'll find these comforting.

"I'm a scorer, man," said Pierce, whose previous career-high of 44 came
against the Nets last season. "I can't get down on my shot. I have the
confidence I can go out there and make them. And my team needs me to keep
playing, keep taking the shots, because once I start hesitating, once I start
passing it, it kind of hurts the team."

"Regardless of how bad I was shooting in the first half, I put that out of my
head," he added. "If I'm going to go out there in the second half and say,
`Well, I don't want to shoot this because of so many shots I missed in the
first half,' then I'm not going to play well. So I just stuck with it, I just
kept playing the basketball that I've played."
``My role on this team is I'm one of the go-to guys,'' said Pierce, who scored
13 of the Celtics' 15 overtime points. ``I've to stay aggressive. This team
needs me to stay aggressive, mix it up, drive to the basket.

``If they see me out there losing confidence, they lose confidence,'' the
fourth-year player added. ``They need to see me playing basketball, the way
Paul Pierce plays basketball.''

And finally, my favorite:

``My teammates showed great confidence in me,'' said Pierce, who pushed his
average to 28.5 points. ``They could have said: `He's off, let's go to someone
else.' They kept getting me the ball and I took advantage of it.''

Well of course they aren't going to someone else. That's not the way this team
wins.

Paul M.