Paul Pierce was a cold-blooded motherfucker

Some opposing players just get under your skin. You know the ones. They rip your heart out of your chest time after time, making you curse their name, and they enjoy the hell out of it.

For me, that player has always been Paul Pierce. Pierce was great against everyone, but it always seemed that he reserved a little something extra for games against the Knicks, and especially for those at Madison Square Garden. This is confirmed by the fact that he’s averaged 22.0 points a night against New York heading into his final season, his second-highest scoring average against any opponent (Lakers, obviously). He of course has scored more total points against the Knicks than any other team.

His teams were annoyingly 40–20 against the Knicks in games he was active, and it seemed like the hit the game-winning shot in approximately 39 of them. He pranced around MSG after one of those game-winners, knocking down that stupid elbow step-back that everybody in the building always knew was coming and nobody could ever stop anyway.

He did that to New York… a lot.

Good lord, did I hate that step-back jumper more than anything in NBA history. It was always so fucking inevitable.

Paul Pierce owned the Knicks in a much more visceral way than even James Dolan owns the Knicks; and I couldn’t stand it. Pierce was always exactly as good as he thought he was, and that will never stop bothering me, probably for the rest of my life — because I’m still a petty child, even at 29 years old. But I’ll also always respect the shit out of him because that motherfucker was cold-blooded, man. That said, I’m still looking into locations to rent out a bar for Knicks fans to celebrate our long, national nightmare being over once this season is done.