After being victorious last year, the Boston Celtics are in for another great year. With Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown leading the charge, supported by strong pieces like Kristaps Porziņģis and Derrick White, the Celtics have positioned themselves as legitimate title contenders as they sit in second place of the Eastern Conference table with a record of 16-4. Yet, amid the team’s current success, franchise legend Paul Pierce has recently stirred the pot.

Appearing on the Dan Le Batard Show, Pierce candidly asserted that the Celtics team he played for—the 2008 championship-winning squad—would “easily” defeat today’s Celtics. His reasoning? Not superior talent, but a mental toughness that his era exemplified. “I ain’t gonna lie. This team is really good. But I will tell you this, our team, I don’t know, we knew how to break teams mentally. So what we lacked in skills versus them, we had with Will,” said Pierce during the show.

Moreover, when the Celtics veteran was asked about whose will he broke during his prime time, Pierce took a sharp jab at one of the NBA’s all-time greats, LeBron James. “Listen, when you start getting guys in foul trouble on the first quarter, and then they foul. I mean, it’s just like listen, I’ve known to break a few wills, sent someone from Cleveland to Miami,” added Pierce during the show.

At the time when Pierce played, the Celtics trio of Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen were as iconic as they were skillful and they weren’t afraid to get inside their opponents’ heads. Garnett has a few stories. “My secret sauce was my gamesmanship—being able to get you to listen and hear what I’m saying, get you to engage with me, and then get you to totally not think about basketball,” he had admitted on his podcast.

While there have been no soaring instances of the trio getting in LeBron’s head, their prowess against the Cleveland Cavaliers is well known and so during the 2008 playoffs, with the Celtics winning 4 games to defeat the latter. Pierce and LeBron had an epic duel in Game 7 as LeBron had 45 points and Pierce 41. The stats might say it benefits LeBron, but it was the Celtics’ Pierce making the defining plays at crunch time that rallied his side to the win. Moreover, Pierce’s claim about LeBron isn’t without merit.

The Cavaliers’ constant failures against the Celtics and lack of a title would force LeBron to go hunting for a stronger team with championship-winning potential; landing with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.

In the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Celtics ousted the Cavaliers in six games, despite Cleveland finishing the regular season with the best record in the league. James’ average performance in Game 5, often cited as a turning point, seemed to highlight the mental toll the Celtics had exacted.

Pierce’s critique of today’s Celtics may seem harsh, but it underscores a larger point about the intangible qualities needed to win at the highest level. While Tatum and Brown are unquestionably talented as both are averaging 29 & 24.7 points (per game), the mental edge—the ability to withstand and apply psychological pressure—remains a question mark. However, this isn’t the only time Pierce has said something about King James.

Paul Pierce credits tough battles for LeBron’s assumed support

Pierce and James share a strong history in the NBA and have faced off 39 times in their careers which includes numerous playoff battles. Important games such as the iconic 2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals, where Pierce’s Celtics prevailed, and the Heat-Celtics rivalry in the early 2010s, have made them fierce competitors.

Recently, a player poll organized by The Athletic sparked debate by asking NBA players to name the greatest player of all time (GOAT). Unsurprisingly, legends like Michael Jordan and LeBron James dominated the results. However, Pierce got only one vote. Looking at this, the Celtics’ veteran wondered if it was James who had voted for him.

“What if LBJ voted for me? I played against him, he must think something. What do you think about that? What do you think about that? We had a lot of battles. Come on now, we had some tough battles. We had some tough battles. It could have been LB,” said Pierce during an episode of  FS1’s Undisputed show. Would look like sending “someone from Cleveland to Miami,” had no hard feelings then.