Pierce is firm: Next season will be his last.
"I've had my time,'' he said.
Did anyone else pick up on this, or is it old news?
Yeah, I saw that. When Pierce and KG are gone from the league, it's going to be a little sad. It's probably me just getting older, but I largely don't find the current generation of stars to be as likeable as the guys like Pierce, KG, Duncan, Dirk, etc.
I think the likability stems from what Pierce said; those guys worked hard. And it showed. These newer guys are more entitled and less apt to work, yet so tantalizingly talented. It also doesn't help that team like the Thunder have no camaraderie with the media; that must help paint a less-rosy picture when it comes to what we read.
They said the same thing about Pierce's generation when they were young, and the Shaq/Iverson generation before that, and so on. In the 80s when I started watching people were grumbling that the Magic/Bird/Jordan crew were all flash and no substance (less so about Bird than the others to be fair), and didn't appreciate fundamentals, defense and hard work. Heck, Pierce even acknowledges in the interview that he didn't work as hard as he could or take care of himself in his younger years. Flash forward 10 years and we'll be holding up the "lazy kids" of today as respected vets who "play the right way" and complaining about how the new players are so spoiled and lazy. So it goes.
Not going to re-read the article, but from what I recall the gist of what I gathered that Pierce was saying was:
1. Young people don't work hard enough, don't prepare enough to be great. He included himself, he now knows better and hopes the young players learn from his mistakes.
2. In the past, he alludes that there were not off days for practice for young players. Now that's more of an organizational thing to protect their assets more than anything rather than shot at young players that don't practice.
So, if I read it correctly, it wasn't really a "our generation did it better than yours" in the sense of calling these younger players lazy, but maybe from an organization context, they're not pushing the players to their limit while young... pampering them. And maybe that in turn causes entitlement and lack of focus to become great.
At least that's how I perceived it when I first read it.
Topic: Good Read from Pierce by Jackie MacMullan (Read 20956 times)