<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">He is currently eighth on the Celtics? all-time scoring list, 595 points behind seventh-place Bill Russell. He is more than halfway to John Havlicek at No. 1 in less than half the games Hondo played (53 percent of the points in 47 percent of the games). He is 159 short of his fourth 2,000-point season, a feat accomplished only by Larry Bird in Shamrock history, and is second to Bird in career franchise per-game average, 24.3-23.4. And he?s far from through, having added four-tenths to his career average this season. ?Paul Pierce could end up being the best offensive player this team ever had,? Tommy Heinsohn said with equal amounts of boldness and backing. ?And I?ve seen them all.? A Hall of Famer himself after great careers as both a player and coach, Heinsohn isn?t just looking at the numbers, impressive as they may be. The Celts? color commentator on FSN cablecasts has made a qualitative analysis as he?s watched Pierce improve his game dramatically over the last two seasons. ?I mean, he?s got an inside game, an outside game, a tweener game - everything,? Heinsohn said. ?He?s beating double-teams, triple-teams. And he?s added a new dimension that?s making it easier: He?s got them guessing. He?s making the passes now. When he?s reading the defense, that helps him. He can get the shots he wants instead of having to force the shots.? Heinsohn is aware that floating such a grand concept of Pierce will cause him to hear some legendary names in rebuttal, but in that he owns the sixth-best average in team history (18.6) and has the eighth-most rebounds, he?s standing on firm Green ground as he speaks. ?Oh, Larry Bird was a great player,? Heinsohn said. ?No one would ever dispute that. But this kid?s going to blow by everybody. I mean, if he plays a significant number of years, he?ll be right up there in career numbers. If we?re talking offense, he can do this stuff every night with this ballclub.</div> Source
Wow, I don't know if I would go as far as saying he's the best offense player in Celtics history, but he sure is up there. What he has been doing this year is amazing, but Bird was a legend.
