By now, basketball fans aren’t surprised when Paul Pierce hypes himself up.
Pierce, a 10-time all-star, Finals MVP, and champion, has developed a reputation for self-congratulatory analysis during his time covering the NBA.
On Tuesday’s episode of The Jump on ESPN, Pierce compared Dallas Mavericks’ star Luka Doncic to himself.
“He [Doncic] got a lot of me in him,” Pierce said, which prompted co-hosts Rachel Nichols and Richard Jefferson to protest in jest.
“No seriously, though. He looks slow, lethargic, but he always gets there. He’s a better passer, but as far as scoring ability, me and him have got a lot in common.”
Pierce isn’t wrong about the similarities in scoring capability.
In five separate seasons, Pierce scored more than 25PPG.
But his continued self-aggrandizing, although often hilarious, has rubbed some skeptics the wrong way.
Nevertheless, Pierce will almost surely be enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame next year – while Doncic still has a long way to go to get a plaque in Springfield.