Paul Pierce Says He Hated The Celtics As A Kid: 'I Hated Larry Bird'

There are plenty of stories of NBA players who ended up playing for the teams they hated while growing up. This is a lot more common than you think but when you learn that player who became legends in these respective teams, things take another dimension. 

That is the case of the Boston Celtics icon Paul Pierce, who did not like his team a bit while growing up. The Truth was born in Oakland but later moved to Inglewood, where his love and passion for the Los Angeles Lakers grew so big that he couldn't stand the Celtics. 

Back in 2019, in an edition of ESPN's 'Off The Clock', Pierce was asked what team or player he hated while growing up and his response was really surprising (0:34). 

"I've been a basketball fan and growing up in Los Angeles, Inglewood, down the street from the forum, I couldn't stand the Celtics. I hated the Celtics so much. I couldn't stand the rival, I hated Larry Bird, I hated everything about the Celtics, so it's really ironic that I got drafted by the Celtics."

As Pierce said, life can be really ironic sometimes. He went to play for the Celtics for 15 years, becoming the best player on the team during those years, winning a championship in 2008 and leaving the franchise as a legend. 

We've seen these cases in recent years and curiously, the Celtics have been involved in some of them. Jayson Tatum was a Lakers and Kobe Bryant fan growing up and he hoped to get traded by the purple and gold that had different plans and missed out on landing the talented player. 

That's how life and the NBA work sometimes and you just have to deal with it and do the best you can even if you feel you're in the worst possible situation.