Every NBA team has a player they hate to go up against, and every fan base has a guy they despise. For the Toronto Raptors, that guy was, and still is, Paul Pierce.
Take it back to Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Toronto Raptors fans hitting the Scotiabank Arena with a barrage of “Paul Pierce Sucks” chants. That brief moment of bliss captures exactly how every true Raptors fan feels towards the, now, NBA Analyst.
It’s not just the die-hard fans who have been following the team for years, but it’s been ingrained into everyone who supports the team. It’s almost as if during your intro to Raps fandom, there’s a lesson on why you should hate Paul Pierce.
So what makes the guy so despised amongst fans in Toronto?
It all started in his playing career where he was a member of the Raptors division rivals, the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets. As fans, we saw him at least three or four times every year and in some cases even more because of the playoffs.
When your favourite team goes up against a certain guy a lot, it’s natural to start developing some animosity towards that player. It’s almost inevitable that they do something you dislike or, they have big moments that crush you.
In Pierce’s case, it was a mix of both.
During his career, Pierce regularly killed the Toronto Raptors. Throughout his prime (1998 – 2013) he averaged 24.4 points per game against the Raptors. That’s just over 2.5 points more than his normal average during that span.
In his career, Pierce put up 20 or more points 27 times against the Raptors and in 12 of those he had 30 or more.
What hurts the most about Pierce’s dominance against the Raptors is that it found its way into the playoffs. He was on the other side of some of the most heartbreaking moments in the teams relatively short history.
There was the first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets in 2014. It was the first time the Raptors had been in the playoffs since Vince Carter and players and fans alike projected some unfair expectations for the young team.
That series went seven games and ended dramatically at the hands of a 36-year-old Pierce. With the series on the line, and a chance to win it, Kyle Lowry muscled his way into the paint trying to find the best shot at the buzzer only to be shut out by Pierce.
The block was one of those crushing moments I mentioned. A lot of people thought it could’ve been called a foul which rubbed salt into the wounds of fans all over.
The very next season, the Raptors matched up with Pierce in the playoffs yet again. This time, he was playing for the Washington Wizards.
Ahead of the matchup, Toronto was favoured to win and the young team was looking to take another step forward.
However, that dream was cut short. Like, very short. The Wizards took care of the Raptors in a quick four-game sweep never giving fans in Toronto any sort of hope.
Pierce was the third man up in their rotation, but without him, the team wouldn’t have had the success they did. He averaged 15.5 points per game – four more than he averaged in the regular season – and provided a dagger three-ball in the third game of the series.
As a Raptors fan, both of those series hurt the part of your heart that’s filled with sports. Just when you thought the Raptors might be going places, Pierce and his teammates ripped it away.
To go along with Pierce’s upped play against the Raptors, he’s not really had anything nice to say about the team.
Right before the series against Washington in 2015, Pierce told ESPN that the Raptors didn’t “Have the ‘It’ that makes you worried.” When it was made, the comment wasn’t something that hurt fans. What did the most damage to fans was how Pierce and the Wizards proved his comments to be right.
Post NBA career, Pierce has gone against the Raptors at any chance he gets. Up until this year’s NBA Finals, he’s been repeating the same thing he said in 2014. Each of the Raptors teams didn’t have the “it” factor despite various successes.
The combination of Pierce’s impact on the early part of a Raptors era and his stance on the team as an analyst has made him the perfect villain for fans of the team.
The thing with Pierce is he likes being the villain. In fact, he plays into it. When he was playing, he was the villain to many different teams – none more than the Raptors – and as a broadcaster, he’s keeping the same energy.