The Truth Revealed

For the first time, too, Pierce feels ready to reach out to his father. "I want to at least contact him and talk to him," he says. "I think now, as a man, I can swallow whatever his reason was to not be there. Right now, I feel like talking to him and asking him, Why?"

Told that George Pierce had asked him to call, Pierce pauses, says, "Oh, yeah? Did he really?" Offered the number, he says, "Sure ... I do want it. I do," and then he repeats the digits back, slowly, to make certain he's gotten them right. Then he takes Billy's number.

When Pierce arrived at the Garden for the opener, he carried with him one of Auerbach's cigars. He placed it in his locker, where he plans to leave it until the season's last day, when he'll smoke it after Boston wins title number 18. Then he walked out and received the trophy crying and gave a speech to thank the people who raised him, and all the coaches and relatives and friends cried, too. It made the long wait seem right. "Because we know he can appreciate it," Steve said moments later. "Sometimes young guys can't. But he can; he's there. It's the right time. It doesn't get any better than this."

But down on the floor, the ceremonies were over and LeBron James and the Cavaliers were trying to spoil everything. Emotions spent, Pierce and the Celtics trailed by seven at the half, and who would've blamed them for losing? Then Pierce snapped his team to life, starting the third period with a three-pointer, hitting another to answer a James jumper, scoring 11 to spark a 24--13 run that put Boston up for good. The Truth had beaten King James again: That's how the sports shows would play it.

But something about the comeback, the whole night, resisted the usual reductive hokum. Nicknames are kids' stuff, really, and aren't much good at summing up complicated struggle. The truth? He swallowed his tears and got to work. Paul Pierce got through another hard night, and he's had enough of those to be called a man at last. Some would call that winning, too.