Prior to the start of the playoffs, Paul Pierce talked about his ‘horrible’ time with the Brooklyn Nets, specifically targeting Brooklyn point guard Deron Williams. Pierce questioned Williams’ leadership and ability to perform in the big moments.
Williams and his teammate Joe Johnson both responded peacefully to Pierce’s criticism, and Williams didn’t seem to be at all bothered by it in game 4 against the 1st-seeded Atlanta Hawks. Williams scored 35 points and played well down the stretch en route to leading his team to an improbable win to even up the series at 2 games a piece.
After Williams’ fantastic performance, Nets guard Jarrett Jack addressed Pierce’s comments.
Following from Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:
“I’m not worried about people that’s saying stuff that’s not inside this locker room. So, if you’re on another team and you comment on another player, I don’t understand why you’re doing that anyway,” Jack told the News. “Especially that’s something that’s in the past, it’s over and done with. If you had something you want to say, you should have done it when you were in the locker room with him. And doing it publicly, I just thought that was, I don’t know. I don’t want to say it’s in poor taste because I think Paul is a professional, he’s just answering a question, but I probably wouldn’t have done it in that fashion.”
Jack, Williams, and Johnson have all been very classy when responding to Pierce’s comments(unlike a certain GM of the Toronto Raptors), and it’s clear that the 3 all have a great deal of respect for their former teammate. They’ve done an excellent job of politely disagreeing in a way that will not result in them being fined.
Despite being the 8 seed, the Nets currently have the momentum vs. the Hawks, as they’ve won each of the last 2 games. Should they pull off the huge upset, they’ll have their hands full in the second round vs. Pierce’s Wizards. The Wizards had the hot hand in their first round matchup, and swept the Toronto Raptors behind clutch play from Pierce.
