The Top 50

#9 - Paul Pierce

For a guy who's spent his entire career with the most storied franchise in basketball lore, Paul Pierce hasn't spent too much time in the spotlight. He was slept on in the '98 Draft, taken tenth behind such rare talents as Raef Lafrentz, Robert Traylor and Michael Olowokandi. His stellar rookie season was overshadowed by the high-flying antics of Vincent Lamar Carter, and even when he established himself as a perennial All-Star and the Celts' best player, he was forced to suffer under the reign of the offensive tyrant known as Antoine Walker. Meanwhile the Celtics were never all that great. Save for a trip to the East Finals in '02, the team never accomplished much to quench the lofty expectations of fans or the front office.

It was all The Truth could do to hover around 25/5/5 while playing some the league's most underrated defense, trying to appease the legions of green-bleeding Boston fans, even though the squad around him became of increasingly little help. Their veterans were dealt in favor of draft picks and prospects; the arrival of Danny Ainge in '03 brought a massive upheaval of which Pierce was the only survivor. He carried on eating up the league's best as his team sank further and further into irrelevance as questionable trades left them with little to salvage.

Entering the summer of '07, it was clear something drastic needed to happen in Boston. Coming off one of their most dismal seasons ever, the Celtics had an increasingly impatient star babysitting one of the league's youngest teams and a closing window to capitalize on his prime. A deal seemed imminent, though few could've fathomed how it would play out. Ainge's sleight of hand revealed two future Hall-of-Famers who would rocket the Celtics back among the league's elite and who were every bit as hungry for some time in that spotlight as Pierce had been for years.

You know how the rest plays out. Pierce made the most of his time to shine, helping lead Boston to a 1-seed, performing in the clutch during some tough opening-round battles, and locking down the MVP en route to a 17th banner in Beantown. Even though his numbers dipped with the new arrivals, he played some of the best ball of his career and was an outstanding leader during the most dramatic turnaround in league history. A definite in the Top 10. And that's the Truth.