When Boston Celtics guard Paul Pierce stated that the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks did not have a rivalry currently going, he can be forgiven since he was merely suffering from an affliction that strikes us all where our most recent experiences form our strongest memories while clouding out what has occurred in the past.
If a rivalry in sports is when games are played between two storied franchises where the two teams trade victories and defeats, then as far as Pierce is concerned, the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks rivalry that he experienced over his first nine NBA seasons ended when the Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
Since Paul Pierce entered the NBA in 1998, the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks had played a total of 48 times before Pierce made his rivalry comments. Their latest contest, a 118-116 thriller in which Pierce hit the game-winning jump shot with 0.4 seconds left on the clock, may very well have changed Pierce's mind, but since the game occurred after Pierce's rivalry statement, I did not include it in the data I examined.
Of those 48 games, a total of 35 of them were played before the Celtics ...
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Article written by David Barbour
Paul Pierce Is Right About Celtics-Knicks Rivalry From His Standpoint
December 20th, 2010 by David Barbour Leave a reply »
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