It’s mid summer, there’s not a lot happening in the sports world, and I’m having a bit of Celtics withdrawal. So, I’m going to tell you a story about Paul Pierce from last March; 3/6/12 vs the Houston Rockets to be exact. It has nothing to do with the fact that on that night he scored 30 points for the second game in a row, or that two days before he’d nailed a ridiculous clutch 3-pointer to send a game to OT (Pierce led the C’s to consecutive overtime wins against the Knicks and Rockets on March 4th and 6th). This is not about Paul Pierce the basketball player, it’s about Paul Pierce the human being. This story is for the ladies, non-basketball fans, my mother, and people who might prefer to watch awards shows instead of sporting events.
On this night shortly after the start of overtime, Pierce drove to the basket, made a tough layup, and had his head band knocked off in the process. He hustled back on defense, and as play shifted to the other end of the court a ball boy picked up the head band and tossed it into the crowd. I saw this happen from my seat in Section 8 of the Garden, and commented that it was a strange thing for the ball boy to do. As I suspected, Pierce wanted the headband back. After playing about a minute without it, at the next whistle he ran over to the crowd frantically looking for it. The fan who caught it was nice enough to throw it back to him, and Pierce finished the game wearing the headband. But, the second the final buzzer sounded, Pierce ran back to that same section of the crowd searching for the fan. He found him, thanked him, and let him keep the souvenir.
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