The Truth Revealed

It's not that Pierce didn't work. He'd show up to practice at all hours, even on off days. One night during the 2001--02 season then Celtics coach Jim O'Brien looked down from his office and saw Pierce on a treadmill, "and I don't mean jogging: I mean sprints," O'Brien says. "He's completely drenched. I said, 'What the hell you doing?' And he said, 'There are no days off.' That's who Paul Pierce is."

It's not that he lacked toughness, either.No one could scoff when Shaquille O'Neal dubbed Pierce the Truth. New Celtics CEO Wyc Grousbeck knew that in 2002, when he saw Pierce play on after the Phoenix Suns' Amaré Stoudemire knocked out two of his teeth and the bloody pieces slid across the Garden floor and stopped at Grousbeck's feet.

But when measuring greatness, it all came down to the word win. Celtics great Kevin McHale sniffed that Pierce "couldn't carry Larry Bird's jock," and after Pierce led the U.S. to a sixth-place finish at the 2002 world championships—with coach George Karl benching him against Argentina and sitting him in the fourth quarter of the final game against Spain—the notion gained currency. Suddenly Pierce was tagged as selfish.

"Paul and I? It was obvious at the end that we were battling," Karl says. He'll say only that Pierce wasn't always "committed" to areas beyond scoring and tended to force "his personality on the game. And when that happens, the game has a way of slapping you."

The slaps kept coming. In 2003 Pierce had his first playoff triple double in the second round against New Jersey and led Boston in postseason assists and scoring. But the Celts lost to the Nets, and when Ainge took over as general manager that May, he unloaded Walker. "He didn't think highly of me and Antoine at all, and I knew this," Pierce says. "So I'm already thinking, He's not feeling my game; I don't need to try to build a relationship because he already doesn't like me and just traded Antoine. Maybe I'm next."

Pierce wanted to play for the U.S. again at the 2004 Olympics, but his reputation was in tatters. Roy Williams, an assistant on the U.S. staff for those Games, tried for two years to convince his colleagues that everyone had gotten Pierce wrong. "I was the only guy bringing his name up," Williams says, "and it wasn't getting anywhere."

His sell wasn't made any easier by Pierce's demeanor. The stabbing, the trial, the losses, the selfish label—all of it combined to drive Pierce further into a shell. There were times, Battie says, when he'd see his friend sink into "his own zone, his own little space" where no one was welcome. Paul stopped calling everyone in the family except Lorraine; his mother would implore him to phone his brothers, and Paul would say yes. But six more months could pass without a call.

After the stabbing, Pierce was warming up for a game against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland when someone from the stands called, "Hey Paul! I'm Billy!" Pierce glanced up. It was his half brother Billy Pierce. And Billy is certain that he heard Paul call back, "My brother?" Then George and Cornelia's son came down courtside. The two men had never met. Billy told Paul that he had called the hospital when Paul was convalescing. He asked if they could speak after the game.

Paul says the pregame meeting "could've happened," but he doesn't remember. Maybe Billy misheard, or Paul was distracted or inclined back then to write off anyone named Pierce. But when the horn sounded at game's end, Paul ran into the locker room without looking back. Billy says he wants no money. He has a good life as a truck driver, and his kids' favorite player is Paul Pierce.

"I'm the only child," Billy says. "I had a sister who passed away as a baby, and the whole time Paul was in Oakland, I was like, I wish I could see my brother. But ... bad situation, I guess.