Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker Take Pride in Being Ahead of the Curve

Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker's time together in Boston included propelling the Celtics to the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals.

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Four years into their partnership, Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker led the Boston Celtics to the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals. A year later, the duo earned their second-straight All-Star appearance alongside each other.

They propelled Boston to a 44-38 record and a trip to the Eastern Conference Semifinals that season. But shortly before the 2003-04 campaign got underway, the Celtics traded Walker to the Dallas Mavericks with Tony Delk in exchange for Raef LaFrentz, Chris Mills, Jiri Welsch, and a 2004 first-round pick.

The former Kentucky Wildcat, nicknamed Employee Number Eight, later returned, donning number 88 upon re-arriving in the city where he spent eight of his 12 years in the NBA in February of 2005. 

Walker averaged 16.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in his second stint in Boston, helping the franchise reach the playoffs under its first-year head coach, Doc Rivers.

The former went on to lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy as a member of the Miami Heat the following season, then played for two more years before his career concluded after spending the 2007-08 campaign with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

But in his post-playing days, Walker consistently comes back to TD Garden. And in a trip to the Celtics' practice facility, the Auerbach Center, he reunited with Paul Pierce in an appearance in View From The Rafters.

In a trip down memory lane, their conversation included a discussion about how the tandem anchored teams ahead of their time, a crucial aspect of their run to the Eastern Conference Finals.

"It was a lot of people saying that we couldn't win with that style of play because we shot a lot of threes," said Pierce. "We shot 30-40 threes a game, and they was like, 'You can't win that way.' Now look where we are."

Paul and Antoine were ahead of the curve on firing from deep 🎯

Listen to them chop it up on VFTR ⤵️

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 24, 2024

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