Celtics Rival Paul Pierce Has Hot Take About Kobe Bryant Being ‘Face of The NBA’

Former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce threw shade at Lakers legend Kobe Bryant on the No Fouls Given show.

Celtics Rival Paul Pierce Has Hot Take About Kobe Bryant Being ‘Face of The NBA’

Kobe Bryant (Left) and Paul Pierce (Right) (Image credits - Firstsportz)

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Paul Pierce and the late Kobe Bryant have represented the two most storied franchises NBA history, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, respectively. Pierce has one Finals MVP to his name when Boston beat the Lakers in the final in 2008. Bryant has had a much successful career in comparison, with five championships and two Finals MVPs, with one coming against Boston in 2010.

The Lakers made it to three consecutive finals from 2008 to 2010, winning back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010, with Bryant winning both Finals MVPs, and simultaneously holding a firm grip on first place in the West for those three seasons.  

Very few players have been as successful as Bryant in the NBA. To go along with his five titles and two Finals MVPs, he won the league MVP in 2008, two scoring titles, nominated 18x as an NBA All-Star and 12x NBA All-Defensive team.

Bryant was arguably the most dominant player in the league in the 2000s. Pierce, while not quite at the level of Bryant, still managed 10 All-Star appearances throughout his career and placed top 10 in MVP voting in 2008-09. The former Celtic star spoke about Bryant on the No Fouls Given show:

Kobe was never just, like, the face of the league. It was Jordan, then, think about it, Kobe was young when [Michael Jordan] retired. You could probably say Shaq or something like that. Or like, even Iverson for a year or two.

Paul Pierce on prime Kobe Bryant vs. prime LeBron James

Two legends of the game but with very different play styles. Bryant was more of a pure scorer, he could pull up from anywhere, and drop 40 on any given night. James was a different kind of a nightmare. He may be a pass-first player, but end of the day, he holds the record for the most points all-time in NBA history, a record that remained unbroken for nearly 40 years.

While James, still active, may stand at 6’9” and weigh around 260-pounds, he is one of the few players in history, who could play in all five positions. He moved like a point guard and was always two steps ahead of everyone else. At his peak, James didn’t just score, he controlled entire games.

Both Kobe and James will go down as two of the game’s most elite offensive weapons. But which one was harder to guard in their prime? Pierce was asked this question by a fan on No Fouls Given, to which he answered:

They both won an MVP. I played LeBron way more times in the East. Four times a year, playoffs every year. But Kobe just kept pressure on you every single time. I’ll never forget the game he took 41 shots. That’s unreal. I remember coming back to the timeout, I think he scored 10 straight on me. They looking around like, ‘Who got Kobe?’ I was just like, ‘I got him!’ I had to yell at everybody. Like, ‘I got em! Shut up!’ Everybody looking at me because he scored 10 straight.

New face of the league according to Paul Pierce

There have been various debates about who will be the next face of the league. With James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant at the final stages of their careers, various names have been put at the front to carry the torch.

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LeBron James (Left) and Kobe Bryant (Right) (Image credits – ESPN)

During the No Fouls Given episode with Pierce, they spoke about the next face of the league, with different names being thrown around. Pierce added:

The thing is to become the face of the league, you got to be the best player in the league. So what Americans do is we see the best player in the league. We don’t have one that we consider that’s the best player. The next face of the league is going to be Luka Doncic.

From an American perspective, things have been a bit unpredictable as stars from overseas haven taken over the NBA. The 2017-18 season was the last time an American won the league MVP, when James Harden was voted as the winner. Joel Embiid did win the award in the 2022-23 campaign but is a recent American citizen. Since then, the league awards have been dominated by foreign players.

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