On a night when LeBron James put himself on top of the NBA’s scoring mountain, surpassing the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, you’d expect people like his sons Bronny and Bryce to pridefully celebrate the moment. After all, they are his family. (You would’ve hoped the same of a teammate in Anthony Davis.)
One person we probably didn’t expect to celebrate James’ extraordinary record mark was Paul Pierce — his former longtime rival, most notably with the Boston Celtics. After James officially got the accomplishment, Pierce fired off a tweet where, among other things, he actually called the Los Angeles Lakers’ star the greatest of all time.
It was admittedly a little weird to see from someone like Pierce!
Honor to say I had a chance to match up with The GaoT I’ve alway never acknowledged u as King but u Truly the King #lRespect no player in NBA History had the pressure coming in the league to exceed expectations not only have u live up to it but u have surpassed it #allhailtheKing
— Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34) February 8, 2023
After Pierce received a ton of confused feedback to his initial tweet, he clarified that James getting the all-time scoring record also made him “underrated.”
Y’all gotta understand This make me underrated now 😂😂😂😂😂🙏🏾😂😂🙏🏾😂
— Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34) February 8, 2023
While Pierce is another great, I’m not sure how much that particular “underrated” thought has merit. That said, even if the tweets were a little weird, it was still really cool to see him celebrating James.