Michael Jordan Or Paul Pierce? Ex-Celtics Wing Drops Daring Take

It’s rare to hear Paul Pierce and Michael Jordan mentioned alongside each other in the same debate, but ex-Boston Celtics wing Wally Szczerbiak made it happen.

Pierce and Jordan played in some of the NBA’s toughest, most talent-filled eras. Jordan battled with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and John Stockton. Pierce, meanwhile, faced Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Tracy McGrady. Szczerbiak, who played with Pierce and against Jordan, offered a bold take when asked a simple question: Who was the toughest player he guarded throughout his 10-year playing career?

“The hardest guy for me to cover — I’ve always said this — was Paul Pierce,” Szczerbiak told “The Dan Patrick Show” on Thursday. “I played against him for years. He was such a smart basketball player. For me, being 6-foot-7, 6-foot-8, Paul Pierce had the height that could match up with me, and I just had a lot of problems guarding him. He’d change speeds, he’s so smart, he was one of the most underrated superstars, I think, in my generation.”

Granted, there’s a slight asterisk-like variable to consider: Szczerbiak never faced Jordan in his prime form.

He never faced “Space Jam,” gold chain-wearing, dunk contest-winning Jordan. When Szczerbiak joined the league in 1999, “His Airness” was retired for the second time after amassing 12 All-Star appearances and six NBA championships. Jordan’s legacy was cemented, but at age 38 and two years removed from suiting up for an NBA game, Jordan returned and joined the Washington Wizards in 2001.

Jordan wasn’t the same competitive beast capable of carrying a team to a Larry O’Brien Trophy hoist at that stage. Szczerbiak’s frame of reference for facing Jordan was a washed-up, post-prime version of basketball royalty. He doesn’t know what it was like to see Robert Balboa in “Rocky I.” Instead, Szczerbiak collided with Jordan in his “Rocky III” stage, when beating a Jordan-led team wasn’t all that impressive.

Szczerbiak still remembers his record in head-to-head matchups with Jordan, as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“When he was with the Wizards and I was with the Timberwolves, in the three years I played against him, we were 6-0 against the Wizards,” Szczerbiak recalled. “Back and forth, home and away, we beat him every single time. So I caught him at the end of his career, but nothing but respect for him.”

Jordan averaged 21.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists in a Wizards uniform and made the All-Star team in each of his two seasons in Washington. He averaged 22.7 points against Szczerbiak’s Timberwolves and scored 35 points during their first matchup. It was just a shade of the punishment those who played before Szczerbiak had endured during Jordan’s heyday run with the Chicago Bulls.

Pierce waited 10 seasons before getting his first chance at winning an NBA Finals, and defeated Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2008. The Celtics retired Pierce’s No. 34 in TD Garden’s rafters 10 years later, and in 2021, Pierce joined Jordan as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.