Former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce fired off yet another hot take... shocker, right? This time he argued that LeBron James isn't a top-five player in NBA history, citing one factor that leaves him off the list.
“What has LeBron [James] did to build up any organization from the ground? I’m talking about these players, top-5 players,” Pierce said on ESPN’s NBA Countdown. “Bill Russell built the organization of Boston, Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], Magic [Johnson], [Michael] Jordan, Tim Duncan, Kobe [Bryant], [Larry] Bird. These guys are all-time top 10 players who helped build their organization or continued the tradition.”
While Pierce does have a point that all of those players built their franchises into all-time teams or even dynasties in some cases, James has tailored the rosters of the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers into ones that can compete for championship titles.
James' three titles were accompanied by Dywane Wade and Chris Bosh with the Heat and Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love with the Cavaliers, but his ability to "build a franchise" shouldn't be a reason to leave him out of the top-five conversation.
Many fans even roasted the 10-time All-Star on social media for his take, including NFL stars Cam Heyward and Darius Slay.
Someone needs to give Paul Pierce a drug test. They hate on lebron and that’s he’s not top 5 is ridiculous. You can tell he still spiteful
— Cam Heyward (@CamHeyward) May 20, 2020
Paul can’t stand Bron I’m a Kobe guy an Bron for sure top 3 hands down!
— Darius Slay (@bigplay24slay) May 20, 2020
Pierce gets flashbacks to this game when LeBrons name is mentioned pic.twitter.com/zq4YYbekjD
— LeBron (king) James (@Damnson03966182) May 20, 2020
— Tony Adamo (@Tony_Adamo3) May 20, 2020
Stop giving this dude attention
— Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT (@3cbPerformance) May 20, 2020
This isn't the first time Pierce has made some ridiculous comments. In 2018, Pierce said Duke would beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, and in 2019 said he had a better career than Wade. Those are two pretty wild claims, so it's safe to say we can take what Pierce says with a grain of salt.
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