Legendary NBA forward LeBron James easily enjoyed more collective success playing for the Miami Heat than any other team he’s suited up with. After all, Miami is the only team he’s won multiple titles with, as the squad won consecutive titles in 2012 and 2013.
Half of James’ four NBA championships came during his Heat stint, but Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce — formerly James’ fierce rival — said that the forward wouldn’t have won as many championships as he did in Miami if they were the same age.
Pierce claimed he would have “offset” James on his title runs as a member of the Heat.
"If we were the same age, I don't believe LeBron would have had 4 championships. LeBron wouldn't have got those 2 in Miami. If we're the same age, I can offset him. I was at an older age then, a lot of miles, it was hard for me to keep up with him." – @paulpierce34
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It is true that every time Pierce and James did battle in the playoffs during the Big 3 era in Miami, the former was on the other side of 30. James, on the other hand, was in his 20s for all of those matchups, including in the 2014 NBA Playoffs when Pierce was on the Brooklyn Nets and in his age-36 season.
Plus, before Pierce started to really get up there in age, he eliminated James from the playoffs on two occasions. Back during James’ first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Pierce’s Celtics sent him home in the second round of the 2008 NBA Playoffs and again in the second round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs.
Still, there isn’t any concrete evidence backing up Pierce’s claim, and Heat fans aren’t likely to get too caught up in any hypothetical assertions from him. What matters is that when James was in a Miami jersey, his teams got the better of Pierce’s teams in the playoffs.
But even though Pierce came up short against James’ Heat in the playoffs plenty of times, he still certainly deserves the respect of fans of the team.
He’s one of the more gifted scorers the league has ever seen and someone who never backed down to playing against James. Pierce sits at the No. 18 spot in terms of all-time scoring in the regular season with over 26,000 points to his name. For perspective, he has more career points than Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.