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NBA FINALS: LAKERS v CELTICS

June 14, 2008

Paul Pierce

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

Q. Paul, Kevin was just in here talking about the now infamous Duck Tour boat ride, vehicle ride you guys took last summer. Can you talk about the significance of that and helping you get to this stage now?
PAUL PIERCE: It was definitely motivational. I remember Doc just telling us to meet him downtown around 8:00 in the morning, me, Ray and Kevin. We really didn't know the reason why we had to meet that early because it wasn't even October training camp.
So we went down there, we jumped in the Duck Tour, took a ride. I'd never been on the Duck Tour, all my years of being in Boston. So we took the tour, and Doc said, "you know, this is what they're going to do if we win a championship."
So it kind of like set the foundation, like, hey, this has gotta be our motivation. This is the pictures you see in our hallway and our practice facility of the guys celebrating, and it was just like, man, to be able to do this the second time will be great because the first time was obviously with Doc, being that I've never been before, and I said, "Next time I get on this Duck Tour, it's going to be when we win the championship." And I promised that.

Q. I want to ask you about a fellow All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony. When you look at your career before this season, are there similarities with you then and Carmelo now?
PAUL PIERCE: I've never gotten a D.U.I. (Laughs).
No, no, no. (Laughs). No, no, I'm not taking a shot at Carmelo. I actually love Carmelo. (Laughs). But I guess you could say there's a lot of similarities, man. He's a 6' 8" forward who can go inside and out, do a lot of great things on the court, still learning the game.
You know, but he's still a young player. He still has a lot more room for improvement, and you know, the way he's looking and the way he started his career, he can probably be a lot better than me when he's all said and done.

Q. Thank you. Paul, you touched on this the other night. Could you touch on the significance of tomorrow being Father's Day and you being a father for the first time. You mentioned that the other night. Can you expand on that a little bit, please?
PAUL PIERCE: Well, I think that would be great. That would be the only Father's Day I probably would ever want. It's my first one, got a little baby girl, two months old, so I was like, if I can get a championship on Father's Day, that'll be the best Father's Day anybody could ever ask for, and it'll definitely be one I'll always remember, so that's the goal right now.

Q. What's the baby's name?
PAUL PIERCE: Prianna Lee Pierce.

Q. There's been some reports about you needing surgery on your knee. How bad is the knee right now?
PAUL PIERCE: Man, you get the news faster than I do.
Well, it's still the same from the time I hurt it. You know, I guess I have a sprain, kind of aggravated in the game before. Like I said, I really don't know how bad it is. I won't know until we end this thing, and that's why I hope I don't get hurt and we end it on Sunday, and then we'll see. But it hasn't gotten any -- too much worse than it already is, but it hasn't gotten any better either.

Q. But no one's told you anything?
PAUL PIERCE: But no one has said anything about surgery. I haven't got the MRI or the x-ray, so we'll see after the season.

Q. How physically beating are all these games in the playoffs? How much of a physical grind is it?
PAUL PIERCE: Man, we've already played over 20-something games, so I think at this point it's all mental, I mean because the physicality, you get used to that after a while playing every other day. So it's all mental, just waking up every morning knowing you gotta win the next game, gotta travel, gotta get up and practice. So it's about overcoming the mental grind, I think, at this point. The guys are tired, ready for the season to be over and we're ready to get this thing over with Sunday.

Q. Can you just talk about when you guys took those two games on the road in Detroit, how much that helped you in this situation now?
PAUL PIERCE: Well, it definitely gave us some confidence being that we hadn't won on the road until we got to Detroit, so I guess we looked at that and said, hey, we played arguably the best home team in all of basketball in a playoff setting and got two wins in their building after not even winning a road game all through the playoffs, so you know, definitely coming into this situation against the Lakers we feel like we can get something done on the road. I mean they're a great home team and they've shown that throughout the course of the playoffs, but we've shown that we've been a great road team throughout the regular season, and I think we're starting to turn it around just at the right time on the road here in the playoffs.

Q. Doc has said how players need to elevate their game come playoff time. Can you talk about, one, how Doc has elevated his coaching game, and also comment about Ray Allen's performance in the playoffs.
PAUL PIERCE: Well, I think in the playoffs you get more time to just really focus on the scouting. So coaching is very important in the playoffs, just game-in, game-out adjustments from one game to the other, from one half to the next. It's kind of hard really during the regular season when you get a day to practice and then you play the team and that's it, you move on. But the adjustments he's made, the things he's done in pressure situations, he hasn't gotten rattled.
As players, as veterans, you look at that as a coach, especially when you're playing. You look at those little things and seeing if the coach is shaking during timeouts. You look at the clipboard to see if the clipboard is still. And Doc, he's maintained his composure throughout all of this, and to talk about Ray, he's been fantastic for us. He's been the one constant pretty much every night for us in the playoffs.

Q. Paul, you being from Los Angeles, being this close, I'm sure you just want to win it, but how much more special would it be for you to win it at home?
PAUL PIERCE: Well, to win it will be special. To win it at home would be unreal. You know, this is where I started playing basketball. This is where I picked up the sport. This is where I got into the game, watching the Celtics and the Lakers, and to win it on this court, you know, even though I wish it was the Forum, but unfortunately it's not, but just to win it here in your hometown is something that people are going to remember, you know, years and years down the road.
I mean if we were playing somebody else in the finals, you know, people may forget, but just being right here at home it's going to make it even more special because it's something we're going to talk about for as long as I'm alive.

Q. And you being in Boston, you don't get much time here, obviously, during the season. What has this week been like and how have you spent your time?
PAUL PIERCE: I've treated this week like I've spent pretty much the whole playoffs. I went home one time to see my mother, and that was probably for like 30 minutes. And I said, I want to treat this like I wasn't at home. I want to treat this like if I was in Cleveland, you know. I'm going to do the same routine. I'm going to stay in the hotel, take my naps, eat my room service or go here to eat and just pretty much keep everything the same. I didn't want to get too comfortable of being at home and soaking up the environment and just getting too relaxed.
And remember, I have a job ahead while I'm at home, and that's to win the Championship. I told my family members, I said, "Hey, we're going to have all summer to talk about it. Let me focus right now and try to win the Championship. Then we'll have our other moments together throughout the summer." And that's how I've approached it.

Q. Thank you, Paul.

End of FastScripts

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