Paul Pierce Brings Championship Mentality To Los Angeles Clippers

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Getty Images

In the real world, 37 years old is usually when your professional career starts to hit its stride. In the NBA, it means you’ve already been receiving your social security checks for a few years.

For 37-year-old Paul Pierce it meant that it was time to return to the place where his impressive basketball career began, Los Angeles. Five years ago this would have seen as Pierce team up with another aging star in L.A., Kobe Bryant, with the 16-time champion Los Angeles Lakers. In 2015 it saw Pierce join the Los Angeles Clippers, a team that has never even made the Western Conference Finals.

The NBA, and especially Los Angeles, has seen the professional basketball scene get turned on its head. A town that was once dominated by the royal purple and gold of the Lakers is now headlined by the new-age Clippers, who are reflection of their vivacious owner, Steve Ballmer. While the Lakers are in a tailspin and look to be trending even further into the tank, the Clippers convinced their star center to rescind a verbal agreement to leave town and again boast one of the most intimidating starting fives in the NBA.

But the most important signing of the Clippers’ offseason may be the elderly Pierce, who brings 17 years of NBA experience to a team craving a taste of championship basketball. For most of his almost two-decade career, Pierce made his name with the Boston Celtics, a team that for so long was a cellar-dweller only to see Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen come to town and bring the NBA’s winningest franchise another long-awaited title.

While Allen and KG may have been the necessary additions for the Celtics, the buck still stopped with Pierce, who hit clutch shot after clutch shot en route to his first title. After spending another five years trying to hoist the Finals trophy for a second time to no avail, Pierce spent a season with the Brooklyn Nets and then last season with the Washington Wizards, essentially serving as a mentor to the younger players on these teams hoping that his tutelage would lead to another championship.

These stops never felt all that like Pierce. Maybe it was because we were so used to seeing him in Celtic green, but more because they weren’t quite ready for what Pierce brought to the table. He possesses supreme confidence; look no further than his “game” call-out after hitting the final shot in Game 3 of last year’s playoff series against the Hawks. But he is also an emotional leader on and off the floor, which makes him all the more intense in the eyes of his teammates.

In Brooklyn and D.C. the teams were still a few years away from ever really needing that emotional leadership that Pierce brings, but in L.A. with the Clippers it’s exactly what they have been clamoring for. There have been rumors of a divided locker room and immaturity runs rampant up and down the lineup.

Pierce knows that he is in the twilight of his career and will have none of the typical antics that come with a Clippers season. There isn’t a team more desperate for a glue to a bring them together which is something Pierce specializes in. The NBA just may see Pierce pictured with the Larry O’Brien Trophy once more if the Clippers can buy into what the old guy is selling.

Douglas Ammon is an NBA Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Who covers all things about the Association, follow him on Twitter @DA76er

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