Former NBA stars Paul Pierce and Dwyane Wade have seemingly been at war lately.
Pierce has publicly claimed he had a better career than Wade, even though Wade has one more scoring title and two more championships.
Richard Jefferson added some fuel to that debate by saying on his podcast that in crunch time, he feared Pierce more than he feared Wade, via NBACentral.
Richard Jefferson says he feared Paul Pierce more than he feared Dwyane Wade
“Ball in the hands for a last-second shot, I would probably fear Paul Pierce more than DWade.”
(Via @RoadTrippinPod ) pic.twitter.com/E9uhptaO2k
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 22, 2023
Both stars were certainly dynamite with the game on the line.
Pierce was always a threat, and he was a master of hitting clutch shots from the mid-range area.
Wade, meanwhile, was a force driving to the basket and drawing fouls, and he was one of the quickest players down the baseline anyone could ever remember seeing.
Throughout his 16-year career, he averaged 22.0 points, 5.4 assists, and 4.7 rebounds a game, while Pierce put up 19.7 points, 5.6 boards, and 3.5 assists per game.
The two men met three times in the NBA playoffs, with Pierce’s Boston Celtics winning in 2010 and the Miami Heat, Wade’s squad for most of his career, emerging victorious in 2011 and 2012.
The Heat had won the world championship in 2006, but they had suffered disarray soon afterward, and it was the arrival of LeBron James in 2010 that revitalized Wade’s career while spelling doom for Pierce.
After losing to Wade’s Heat in Game 7 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics ended up pulling the plug and sending Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets in a blockbuster trade.
That trade ended up planting the seeds for the team’s recent success behind Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
NEXT: Jayson Tatum Links Up With Big East Rival At The Gym
