While Kobe Bryant galavants around the NBA getting his retirement tour and having NBA teams and their fans embrace him as he nears the end there are other players around the league who are around Kobe’s age who are also near the end but haven’t announced anything yet.
Kevin Garnett is throwing down poster dunks with the young and upcoming Minnesota Timberwolves. Tim Duncan is thriving with the San Antonio Spurs, as usual. Dirk Nowitzki isn’t the same player he was a few years ago but he’s still putting up solid numbers with the Mavericks.
Then, there’s the flipside of the coin. Kobe Bryant is shooting himself into one of the worst shooting seasons in NBA history. Vince Carter can’t sniff minutes coming off the bench for the Memphis Grizzlies and Paul Pierce has lost more than a step and his play with the Clippers has produced career low stats.
So does Pierce see the light at the end of the tunnel, much like Kobe did? It sounds like he’s slowly coming to peace with the end.
Following from Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times.
Paul Pierce: "The older you get and the less you’re able to do things you could do before, you start thinking about maybe it’s that time."
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) December 10, 2015
Paul Pierce said he feels like he can do more to help Clippers but he's fine with role as long as team continues to win.
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) December 10, 2015
Pierce is under contract with the Clippers through 2017-18, with a fully guaranteed salary of nearly $3.5 million for next season and a partial guarantee worth about $1.1 million for the final season of his deal.
If he does step away, he could help out the Clippers, a little bit, but it will be something. Pierce on this Clippers team compared to his time spent with the Washington Wizards has two very different dynamics. With the Wiz, Pierce was a mentor to some of the young players like Otto Porter, John Wall and Bradley Beal but on the Clippers, he’s just another old guy. The big trio of Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin are all grizzled veterans who have prior experience with older guys before like Dahntay Jones, Hedo Turkoglu, Matt Barnes, Antawn Jamison and even currently with Jamal Crawford. They don’t need guidance or direction, they need Paul to play at a competent level and sometimes, he struggles to do that.
The end could be near for Pierce but unlike Kobe, he won’t be getting a heroes tour. Instead, it’ll just happen and we’ll just remember him for what he was, not what player he is now.
