Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are an iconic duo in the NBA universe. The two played together for seven seasons with the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets, and became such good friends that they now do plenty of podcasts together. But only one of them ever won an MVP during his career.
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Garnett took home the MVP in 2003/04 as a 27-year-old playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He averaged just 24 points per game, but grabbed 13.9 rebounds per contest, and added 1.5 steals and 2.2 blocks. He was a menace on both ends of the court and was deservedly awarded the MVP for his efforts that season.
Pierce, however, never had the honor of winning an MVP. He was an incredible scorer. In fact, he’s first in Celtics team history for three pointers made. But he never played enough defense to merit serious discussion as the league’s best player. His highest-ever finish in the voting was 7th in 2008/09.
In his prime, Pierce averaged 1.5 steals and 0.6 blocks per game at best. It’s because of these low totals that Garnett believes his good friend never won an MVP like him.
“To be honest, I thought you was gonna be an MVP at some point, but your a** don’t play no defense,” Garnett told Pierce on KG Certified. “Say something to you, you get mad, that’s when you play D.”
Of course, Pierce tried to defend himself. But Garnett would know better than anyone how good a defender The Truth was. And he knew that Pierce only ever gave a full effort when he was called out, fueling him to try harder.
Kevin Garnett says Paul Pierce didn’t play defense
“To be honest, I thought you was gonna be MVP at some point, but your ass don’t play no defense… n**** say something to you, you get mad, that’s when you play d.”
(Via @kg_certified)pic.twitter.com/1iJD6GYG1F
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) November 1, 2025
What’s funny is that Pierce fully admitted to this in an interview he did early on in his career in 2001. He talked about how his friend from high school would motivate him by trash-talking him in the offseason.
“He’ll be like, ‘You don’t play no defense.’ That always gets me riled up, when people say I can’t do things,” Pierce once said to Slam Magazine.
Maybe if The Truth had kept this same mindset for the entirety of his career, he would’ve bagged an MVP at some point. But instead, he focused on his scoring prowess, which was impressive. However, Pierce walked away with an inflated sense of how good he was.
Pierce Thinks He’s the Best Scorer of All Time
Defense aside, Pierce truly believes that he had no weaknesses in his game offensively. Because of this, he also believes he was the greatest scorer of all time. Better than Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Durant.
“I had no offensive weaknesses. Take all the top scorers, and take away the best thing they do… What do you take away from me? I did it all well,” Pierce once told Club Shay Shay.
In case you were wondering, The Truth finished his career with 26,379 points, good for 21st on the all-time list. He also played for 19 seasons, four longer than Jordan, who still has nearly 6,000 more career points than Pierce. This is all to say that what he claimed was simply untrue.
Pierce was an excellent player in his time. He won a championship, was a prolific scorer, and earned a spot among the game’s Top 75 players of all time. But even his biggest fans have to admit that Pierce believes he was a lot better than he actually was. The proof is in the numbers.
