Paul Piece claims that he was better than Dwyane Wade. The former star of the Boston Celtics decided to share his opinion and state that he was a better player than Wade has been. It has created a lot of discussions, but do the Paul Pierce career stats really measure up to that of Dwyane Wade?
So why has the Paul Pierce vs Dwyane Wade conversation come up again? The topic was discussed on the Friday episode of NBA Countdown on ESPN. The panel (Paul Pierce, Jalen Rose, and Brian Windhorst) was asked questions by host Michelle Beadle.
As seen in the video below, Beadle asked them to choose between players, beginning with Wade compared to Isiah Thomas and Allen Iverson. Later on, she asked them to choose between the Heat Big 3 and the Celtics Big 3. Pierce stated that in their primes the Celtics would have won. The rest of the panel laughed at him.
When Pierce was asked to decide on the better player between himself and Wade, he stated, “That’s easy… it’s me.”
Who is really better – Paul Pierce of Dwyane Wade?
In head-to-head matchups throughout their careers, Pierce and his teams beat Wade and his teams in 22-of-33 games they played. Wade had the advantage in the postseason, winning 13-of-22 games.
Breaking down the career accolades, Wade won three NBA championships with the Miami Heat, was named an All-Star 13 times, won a finals MVP, was named to the All-NBA First Team two times and made the All-Defensive team three times.
Pierce won one championship, made 10 All-Star teams, won one finals MVP, and never made an All-NBA First Team or an All-Defensive team.
When it came to individual statistics, Wade has averaged 22.0 points, 5.4 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. Pierce was at 19.7 points, 3.5 assists, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game.
In the playoffs, Wade improved to 22.3 points, 4.9 assists, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. Pierce was at 18.7 points, 3.4 assists, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game.
As for their shooting percentages, Wade made 48 percent of his shots in the regular season and then 47.4 percent in the playoffs. Pierce hit on 44.5 percent during the regular season and just 42.3 percent in the playoffs.
#L3GACY – ⚡️ @DwyaneWade gets challenged by Anderson Varejão resulting in the ultimate poster and one of many #WoW moments over #FatherPrime's 16 year career.https://t.co/GO0aqit4lH pic.twitter.com/K33R3qmgft
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) April 4, 2019
Those Paul Pierce career stats don’t indicate that he was better than Dwyane Wade. Neither do the three titles that Wade won with the Miami Heat or all of the individual awards that he won. The stats, the awards, and the titles over their careers all point toward Dwyane Wade being the better NBA player