Paul Pierce on getting stabbed and then embracing Boston as home

Celtics legend Paul Pierce discussed how the near-fatal stabbing he suffered in 2000 helped him grow and embrace the city of Boston as home.

It was September 2000, a year before our country began to live in fear after 9/11. Paul Pierce was having a unique experience, living in a new city as a major star. He was born in Oakland and came from Inglewood, where the Pirus and Crips ran the streets.

Pierce had escaped all of this and was becoming a superstar NBA player in a city that worships its athletes like demigods. But everything changed one night in September, when he was stabbed in the face, neck and back at the former Buzz nightclub. Pierce suffered a collapsed lung and even asked the surgeons if he was going to die.

Nearly 18 years later, he stood in a hotel just around the corner from where that stabbing took place, remembering how that moment changed who he was as an athlete, man, and citizen of Boston.

“Without a doubt, this city raised me. I’ve been through a lot. I mean, I had almost a tragic incident where I was stabbed a number of times in this city, and it could have went to the point where I wanted to leave. I even thought about maybe, ‘I’m in danger here.’ But it was just like, you know what, I embraced it. I moved on from it.”

In a city known for being as confrontational as it is protective of its own, Pierce gradually became the chosen son, trying to restore success to a once iconic franchise that had suffered its worse stretch before he got there. Pierce would miraculously bounce back from the attack to play every game that season, averaging 25.3 points per game.

The next year, he ended their longest playoff drought in franchise history (seven years) as he led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals, lasting six games against Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets. It was clear that Pierce had become the face of the franchise and the city.

“They took me in as one of their own, man,” Pierce said. “So I just feel like the things that I’ve been through in this city, on and off the court, from an immature kid to a grown adult, I’ve spent more years in the city here than I spent in any other city in my life.

“Growing up in Los Angeles, I was born in Oakland, raised in Inglewood, went to Kansas, so all those years all were broke up. Spent 15 years here, I can definitely say this city definitely raised me.”

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!