Pierce excited to play with O'Neal, chase a championship
For the man who seemingly has an endless string of nicknames, it didn’t take long for Bostonians to anoint him with his latest: The Big Shamrock.
This is the name that the Boston Celtics chose to give to 38-year-old big man Shaquille O’Neal, their latest off-season acquisition. Speaking of nicknames, the Celtics leading-scorer Paul Pierce was coincidentally given his own, “The Truth,” by none other
than O’Neal.
But this is not the only reason why Pierce is looking forward to playing with one of the best big men in the history of the NBA.
“I’m excited,” Pierce said of playing with O’Neal. “He’s one of my all-time favourite players, and now I have a chance to play with one of the greatest players to ever play the game.”
Pierce made the comments while attending a ceremony at Inglewood High School, which he attended, where his former number was retired.
O’Neal was one of numerous off-season acquisitions for the Celtics, who also added forward Jermaine O’Neal from the Miami Heat and guard Delonte West from the Cleveland Cavaliers, who played with Shaq last season.
After beating the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in the 2007-08 season, the Celtics failed to get past them this year. The series was up for grabs and the Celtics could have prevailed with a few more breaks. They ended up losing the heart-breaking
series in seven games.
The Celtics felt a need to shore up their frontcourt after center Kendrick Perkins went down in the finals this year with a right knee injury. Celtics coach Doc Rivers said the Lakers didn’t beat them at their best and Pierce agrees.
"We reloaded this year," Pierce said. "We added some more pieces — Jermaine O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal, a couple other pieces — so he was right. Hopefully we can get to the finals this year healthy. We'll have the opportunity to win a championship."
Part of the logic in signing O’Neal, who can’t produce like he used to but can still be effective playing limited minutes, was because Boston owner Wyc Grousbeck felt the big man would be extra motivated this season. Kobe Bryant, his ex-team-mate and long-time
rival, won his fifth championship this year. That gives him one more than O’Neal. Grousbeck is banking on the fact that O’Neal will do everything he can this season to pull even with Bryant.
Pierce wasn’t surprised by this savvy thinking by the Celtics owner.
"I'm not at all surprised by it, because (Grousbeck) is a competitor too," said Pierce, the 2008 finals MVP. "Even though he's not on the court with us, when we win, he wins, and when we lose, he loses, because he feels it just as much as we do."
O’Neal averaged only 12 points and 6.7 rebounds in 23.4 minutes per game last season with the Cavaliers, having played only 53 of a possible 82 games.
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