Pierce's role: Co-star to leading man

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pierce's role: Co-star to leading man
By Jackie MacMullan, Globe Columnist, 11/14/2003

WALTHAM -- He is the lone All-Star left standing, and with that comes a
multitude of expectations and duties. Some of them, Paul Pierce can readily
fulfill. Others may never fall under his jurisdiction, despite his own best
efforts. Now that Antoine Walker has been removed from the basketball
equation, Pierce is expected to score, to defend, to explain, to lead, to
assume responsibility for all that is good and all that is bad about the
Boston Celtics. There is little doubt Pierce has the talent to deliver on the
basketball court. But can he also be the leader this team can rebuild around?
Can he replace Walker as the voice in the locker room, as the vocal motivator
his teammates look to at the most critical junctures of the season?

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"Honestly, I don't believe Paul is that kind of leader," said head of
basketball operations Danny Ainge. "And I hate the fact people expect him to
be."

Ainge rattled off the names of All-Stars who also don't fit the bill: Penny
Hardaway, Kobe Bryant, Clyde Drexler, Kevin McHale.

"They all are, or were, great players, but people expected them to be these
magical leaders," Ainge said. "That wasn't their personality.

"What I want Paul to be is a leader by example. Period. What I love about Paul
Pierce is he's working as hard as anybody on the court. His example is huge
for us. I don't want him or need him to take over the locker room."

The most prominent voice in the players' inner sanctum is Eric Williams, a
scrappy, overachieving veteran who is in the final year of his contract. He
commands the respect of his teammates and was the optimal buffer for his
combustible friend Walker. Yet Williams does not have the superior basketball
skills required to have the same impact on the floor as in the locker room.

Pierce does. He concedes he acquiesced to Walker's strong personality in the
past, but wants to assume a new identity with his teammates.

"I feel this is a chance for me to be a more vocal leader," Pierce said. "I'm
not the type who is going to go out and be critical of a lot of guys. If I see
something brewing, a potential problem, I'll deal with it. We have other guys,
too. Eric has been around. Walter McCarty does that."

Left unsaid is how Walker used to dominate such matters. After trading Walker,
Ainge cited his "grasp" on the franchise as a negative force.

"I know Antoine did a lot of talking, in the huddle and the locker room,"
Ainge said, "but I'm not sure that's beneficial when you are telling your team
to play defense, and work hard, and you don't back some of that up yourself."

So which perception is correct? Was Walker a leader his teammates admired, or
an overbearing All-Star whose words rang hollow in his final days?

"A little of both," answered Williams. "He was a fiery leader in games, a good
leader. But, at times, he overdid it. Sometimes in practice, when he didn't
want to do stuff, the other side came out. But who do you blame for that? They
gave him the rein to do it by not bringing it to light."

Celtics coach Jim O'Brien maintains Walker was a "tremendous influence on our
team, and one of the key reasons our franchise turned the corner."

"He had pluses and minuses, just like all of us," said O'Brien.

Boston's coach cautions against comparing Pierce's leadership attributes to
Walker's.

"Rick Pitino was a charismatic, dynamic leader," O'Brien explained. "I'm not.
I'm a good leader, but I'm not charismatic. I'm more analytical. I'm not the
same personality as Rick, on the sideline or in any kind of room.

"We traded away a dynamic player in Antoine Walker. Paul is more unassuming.
Paul is a good leader. He's just going to lead in a different way."

Based on interviews with his teammates, Pierce's leadership skills needed some
honing. He was often demanding and impatient with players who he felt had not
reached their potential. He was particularly hard on forward Kedrick Brown and
Vin Baker last season. Fellow veteran Tony Delk (who was traded along with
Walker to Dallas) often had trouble concealing his displeasure with Pierce's
tactics.

"What Paul has got to realize is his position is different from everyone else
on the team," Williams said. "Not everyone can get the shots he gets. A lot of
guys sacrifice their games for his glory. "But I've already seen a difference.
He's encouraging guys more. He's much more positive. Last year, I used to feel
for Kedrick. Paul would ride him so hard. It bothered Tony, too. You could
hear the two of them on the court going at it sometimes."

Pierce said he thought about his relationship with his teammates, and made it
a priority at the start of training camp to solidify his role with them.

"It's got to do with maturity," Pierce said. "I've learned to be patient. I've
learned how to have better relationships with people. I've learned you can't
talk to everybody the same way. I look back and regret how I handled certain
people.

"I understand now you can get on Tony Battie, but you can't get on Marcus
Banks in the same way. In the past, I've let my emotions get the best of me.
Once you lose a player, you lose them. And I'm not in a position to be losing
guys."

Baker says he's returned to the Celtics with a fresh take on Pierce.

"I think we all forget, because Paul has accomplished so much so early in his
career, that he's still so young," said Baker. "He's still growing. He pushed
me because he wanted me to do well. When I came back, one of the people I
wanted to make amends to was Paul. Not by saying, `Sorry, I'll do better,' but
by playing hard, like he does, and showing up early, like he does. He leads by
example. You can't force being a vocal leader."

In the past, when the Celtics faltered, the blame was spread between their two
stars, with Walker absorbing the lion's share of the criticism. At times, he
deserved it. At times, he didn't. At times, he needed a teammate to step up
and challenge him, but that rarely happened.

"Most of the time, I deferred to him," Pierce admitted. "He was here first. He
had seniority. The times I stepped on Antoine's toes were the times we
clashed. It happened a lot on the court. But we could always get past it. We
never let it carry over to the next day. We knew we needed each other."

Pierce is now the lonely figure at the top. He has struggled with a new
system, new players, and his new role. He takes on Cleveland tonight as the
team's leading scorer (21.0 points a game), but he is shooting just 39.2
percent from the floor and is averaging an eye-popping 5.5 turnovers a game.
He is taking nearly 20 shots a night (19.7), and, according to Ainge, "If we
count on Paul to do it for us every time, we're not going to win many games."

"Paul is going to have to learn to find the open man," said Ainge. "If Paul
Pierce is double-teamed 20 feet from the basket, he's got to get it to the
open guy for the easy shot. It's great to have someone like Pierce, who
demands so much attention. Now he's got to make the other guys' job easier."

Ainge said no words need to be spoken regarding that assignment. Actions
always speak volumes when it comes to respect.

"Larry Bird was our leader, because we knew he'd be the one with the ball at
the end of the game," Ainge explained. "Larry didn't come into the huddle and
start screaming at everyone to play defense. He did it by diving to the floor,
taking a charge, grabbing a rebound in traffic. That motivated us to play.

"Once every 40 games or so, Larry might yell at me, but it was usually out of
frustration. A true leader doesn't say anything when you are down 20 at
halftime. They don't give speeches. They just go out and show you how to win.

"That's the kind of player Paul can be."

In the meantime, Pierce is working on the kind of leader he'd like to be:
patient, understanding, motivational. The early returns are encouraging.

"Paul is the best," said rookie Marcus Banks. "I look up to him. I listen to
everything he says. He's been really positive with me. He knows what I'm
capable of doing."

The success or failure of the Celtics will determine the success or failure of
Paul Pierce. The lone All-Star is fine with that.

"Danny has put this franchise on my shoulders," said Pierce. "That means a
lot. I can handle it. I'm ready. I wasn't two or three years ago, but I am
now."

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx