Paul Pierce’s rivalry with the Miami Heat is continuing even in retirement.
Pierce has served as an NBA analyst since retiring after the 2016-2017 season. Pierce spent the first 15 seasons of his NBA career with the Boston Celtics, who had an intense rivalry with the Heat. The Hall of Fame player dislikes the Heat so much that he is refusing to consider them a championship contender.
Pierce said on a Showtime Basketball live show in Las Vegas Thursday that acquiring Damian Lillard would hurt the Heat. He reiterated his stance on Friday’s show.
“To acquire a player like that, you [sic] gonna lose so much of the other pieces you had that helped you get to where you needed to go,” Pierce said on the show Friday.
“Yeah, they made the Finals, but people seem to forget that team was a play-in team. So that don’t [sic] make you a contender when you get to the Finals.”
.@paulpierce34 responds to the criticism of his viral Miami Heat take from yesterday's live show.
We are LIVE from NBA Summer League now on YouTube: https://t.co/qFlve73IOv pic.twitter.com/p1vhQiE3WO
— All the Smoke Productions (@allthesmokeprod) July 14, 2023
Though Pierce had some reasonable explanations to justify his opinion regarding the Heat, Miami knocking off the Knicks and Celtics was not a fluke (they got a nice break that Giannis Antetokounmpo got hurt in the first round). Pierce said that the Heat would miss the playoffs in 2021, and they did not.
Pierce also gave a horrific prediction in March about this year’s NBA playoffs. So you should probably take his words and opinions lightly.
