Paul Pierce doesn’t know for sure when his NBA career will end, but he does know the time is approaching.
The Los Angeles Clippers swingman is 38 years old and having the worst season of his likely Hall of Fame career. Pierce is averaging just 17.5 minutes per game and has scored just nine points combined in his last five games. He’s shooting 29.7 percent from the floor, almost 20 percentage points below his career total. Basically, the writing is on the wall.
With plenty of talk surrounding Kobe Bryant’s retirement announcement, it’s natural to wonder whether Pierce is getting ready to hang them up, too. He admits he has thought about the idea of walking away.
“Right now, I’m year by year,” Pierce told reporters Wednesday, per the Orange County Register. “Like I reevaluated what I was going to do this summer, I will do the same thing next summer. It will be possibly that I don’t play next year, but that’s something I’ll evaluate with myself and my family.”
The hope is the on-court product gets better, that Pierce starts hitting shots and producing again. If that doesn’t happen, though, he plans on being realistic.
“You just listen to your body, you go through the 82-game grind, how physically and mentally you’re invested into it,” Pierce added. “I think the older you get and the less you’re able to do things that you could do before, you start thinking about maybe it’s that time.”
Thumbnail photo via Danny La/USA Today Sports Images
