Raptors-killer Pierce will miss Toronto's 'great basketball atmosphere'
A day after Paul Pierce soaked up the adulation from Boston fans to whom he'd given a lifetime of memories, the future Hall of Famer made his last NBA trip to Toronto, a city he perennially tortured with a seemingly endless supply of daggers as a Celtic, Net, and Wizard.
Now the oldest member of the Los Angeles Clippers, Pierce laughed when asked if he's going to miss breaking Canadian basketball hearts in retirement.
"Outside of Boston, (Toronto) is my favorite place to play," Pierce told theScore in Air Canada Centre's visiting locker room, still giggling.
Though he later admitted to enjoying trolling Raptors fans and getting a laugh out of them over the last number of years, Pierce ensured this was no joking matter, as he shifted to a more serious tone for emphasis. "No, truthfully. These fans are very passionate about the sport. This is one of my favorite places, even though our relationship is the way it is."
"The way it is" has seen Pierce accumulate more boos in Toronto than perhaps any player not named Carter, McGrady, or Bosh.
Pierce's relationship with Toronto's rabid fan base has nothing to do with being an ex-Raptor who forced his way south or spurned the franchise. Rather, it's with the fact an organization that grew accustomed to futility for its first 20 years of existence was often left heartbroken by the type of demoralizing plays that earned Pierce his "Truth" nickname.
"They still respect what I've done," Pierce said of the boos and somewhat comedic battles he's enjoyed with Raptors fans. "They're knowledgeable fans. It's just a respect thing with the fans here. When you get booed in a road arena, they recognize you - that's respect.
"I understand what it is. A lot of players don't get booed. That's just the respect factor coming in. They don't like the things you've done (to their team), but they respect you."
Among Pierce's most memorable Raptors-killing moments, he came up with the series-saving, buzzer-beating block on Kyle Lowry that preserved a Game 7 victory for Brooklyn in the 2014 playoffs, but the 39-year-old said it was the buzz around Air Canada Centre during that first-round series (Toronto's first in six years) he fondly remembers.
"That's in the top three, man," Pierce said, after a pensive sigh, of the atmosphere in Toronto for that series. "I always say, outside of Boston, this is one of the loudest places to play. This is one of the great basketball atmospheres that I've ever played in. It was tremendous, from the people inside to the people outside. You don't see that."
Pierce, who proclaimed himself "King In The North" after helping the Wizards sweep the NBA's lone Canadian franchise in 2015, didn't take the court Monday in Toronto, as the Raptors cruised past his Clippers.
He didn't need to. As far as this fan base is concerned, he's already done enough. And though he famously told the world he didn't want to pass through Canadian customs anymore, it sounds like the 19-year veteran actually quite enjoyed those trips.