On Tuesday night, Boston Celtics player Paul Pierce took another step towards greatness, passing Larry Bird for second place on the Celtics all-time scoring list. Paul entered the game trailing the legendary Bird by only nine points, and had a rough start to the game, as he shot just 3-for-10 in the first half, finishing with seven points. Although he tried to play it cool, Pierce admitted the milestone was hanging heavy over his head saying “How could it not? With every deep breath that the crowd was taking, every shot that went up, it was just like, you could just feel it. And it was hard to really ignore it and really focus on the game.”

But on his second shot of the third quarter, Paul hit a 3-pointer from the right wing with 10:23 to play to slide past Bird. Pierce finished with 15 points, bringing his career total to 21,797, on 6-of-18 shooting. He flirted with a triple-double by adding nine assists and eight rebounds over 37:17.

The fans in Boston gave Pierce a long standing ovation for his efforts, and during the first full timeout following his milestone, he was honored with a tribute on the Garden video screen and went to half court to take a bow as the crowd roared again. Pierce clearly appreciated all the love he received, saying ”We have great fans. They’ve seen it all from my younger days, from my trials and tribulations, to this point today and it’s a great honor just for them to be able to stand up and give me that type of ovation. Being a Celtic for all these years and understanding what it means to be a Celtic and the ups and downs you go through just to come to this point in your career, it really means so much the support that they have given me over the years.”

Paul now sits at number 2, and only has John “Hondo” Havlicek in front of him on the all-time scoring list, whose 26,395 are the most in franchise history. Pierce sits 28th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. He soon will leapfrog another former Celtic inGary Payton (21,813) and is on the heels of San Antonio’s Tim Duncan (22,009) with eyes on moving into the top 25.

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Signed, Isidori Mtabo