"My name is Shaquille O'Neal & Paul Pierce is the motherf**king truth” – Shaquille O'Neal's tribute to former teammate surfaces online on Celtics great's birthday
A quote from Shaquille O'Neal singing Paul Pierce's praises resurfaced online to commemorate the Boston Celtics great on his 45th birthday.
Pierce, who was briefly teammates with O'Neal at the Celtics, had an incredible NBA career despite being cut from his high school team twice. He led the Boston Celtics to a championship in 2008 by beating bitter rivals, the LA Lakers.
The former NBA champion turned 45 on October 13. To celebrate his birthday, Ballislife.com posted a tweet with a quote from Shaq from 2001. After a particularly impressive performance by Pierce against the Lakers, Shaq gave him the nickname 'The Truth'.
"My name is Shaquille O’Neal & Paul Pierce is the motherf*cking truth. Quote me on that and don’t take nothing out. I knew he could play, but I didn’t know he could play like this. Paul Pierce is 'The Truth.'"
SHAQ: “Take this down. My name is Shaquille O’Neal & Paul Pierce is the motherf*cking truth. Quote me on that and don’t take nothing out. I knew he could play, but I didn’t know he could play like this. @PaulPierce34 is The Truth.”
https://t.co/rPOZ7aS9l1
The former Celtics swingman now often appears on NBA talkshows and podcasts. He was an analyst on ESPN for a while but was let go after a video of him partying hard went viral on social media.
On "KG Certified," Pierce gave his take on the Lakers. He said he does not consider them to be legit contenders, citing LeBron James' age and the lack of supporting cast.
Shaquille O'Neal believes he stopped Paul Pierce and the Boston Celtics from winning another ring
Towards the end of his career, Shaq moved around the league a lot. He ended up in Boston in 2010 where he retired.
Shaq admitted that he was looking for a fifth ring and believed he could win with the Celtics. However, he retired a year earlier than he wanted because he felt he wasn't delivering at the level he would have liked.
Although Diesel made it clear that head coach Doc Rivers wanted him primarily to clean the glass, he said he was not comfortable with averaging nine points.
On "Fair Game," Shaquille O'Neal mentioned that he robbed Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from winning another title. He asserted that if he stayed healthy, they would have had a decent chance of winning the title:
"Shaq is not Shaq when he's averaging 7, 8, 9 points. That's not Shaq. I can still entertain and do stuff to make people giggle but that's not Shaq. I'm robbing the people, I'm robbing the Celtics. You're only paying me a million, I don't feel right. I'm not coming back, here's your money back sir. Thank you.
"I was ring chasing, I really was. But, I wanted to help Paul, because Paul was one of my favorites. And I love KG (Kevin Garnett). So, I wanted to play with them, come do all I can just to help them get one. It would be number 5 for me."
Shaquille O'Neal played only 37 games that season before suffering an injury. Although he signed a two-year contract, he decided to retire early.