Pierce vs Worthy

[Fire Colangelo]

Who would you rather have over the course of their careers?

Worthy:
7x All Star
3x Champion
1 FMVP
2x All NBA 3rd team

18/5/3 career regular season
21/5/3 career playoffs

Pierce:
10x NBA All Star
1x Champion
1 FMVP
1x NBA All NBA 2nd team
3x NBA All NBA 3rd team

21/5/4 career regular season
20/6/4 career playoffs

:confusedshrug:

[Rolando]

screw Worthy and the frikken asswipe lakers. This is no comparison: Pierce rules!:cheers: :rockon: :pimp:

[L.Kizzle]

Worthy.

[SouBeachTalents]

screw Worthy and the frikken asswipe lakers. This is no comparison: Pierce rules!:cheers: :rockon: :pimp:

Definitely objective and non-biased analysis

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

Big game.

The numbers are pretty close too, despite Worthy playing on an incredibly stacked Laker team.

His game 7 against Detroit is something Pierce was never capable of upstaging.

[Xiao Yao You]

Pierce easy

[Real Men Wear Green]

Tough to compare when one guy is a first option and the other is a third. In my humble opinion both would have achieved similar results at their peaks if the situations were reversed. The only stat favoring Worthy is FG percentage. His lead there is huge but I bet Pierce is much more efficient with Magic and Kareem playing beside him for his youth and prime. On the flip side he scores less of course. Pierce's edge in longevity is massive, and the reason why I'd say Pierce has had a better career. Worthy's last two seasons did nothing for his legacy and he retired at 32. Pierce was one of the best SFs in the game until he was 34.

[Rizko]

Worthy.
I like you as a poster and think you have good opinions but for all the years ive read this board idk if I've ever seen you take him in a comparison between another small forward. Is it something about his style you don't like?

As for the question I'm biased as a Celtics fan, but in most instances I take Peirce.

Worthy is quite the creator off the dribble or passer Peirce is imo. Not a huge gap, but a little bigger then the #s suggest. Worthy played on fast break teams that had great ball movement most of his career so it helps his raw averages a bit.

If I needed a 3rd option I'd take Worthy unless my team needed shooting on the wing or needed a crutch time shooter/isolation scorer to put it over the top. If I needed a 2nd option in most cases I'd take Peirce unless it was a team that had a great PG and played fast break basketball. As a 1st option I'd rather not have either, unless it was an egalitarian setup like the 08 C's, but I'd take Peirce.

[bizil]

I'm rolling with Pierce over Worthy GOAT wise and peak wise. Worthy played most of his career as a third option at best. I do think he was a guy who had alpha dog capabilities no doubt about it though. But other than the rings, Pierce has him trumped in all the other categories pretty much.

[bizil]

I'm rolling with Pierce over Worthy GOAT wise and peak wise. Worthy I do think was a guy who had alpha dog capabilities no doubt about it though. But he was part of the Showtime machine with so many talented scorers. So he could play in the flow and pick his spots to dominate. But James was truly one of the best SF's ever on the block, in transition, slashing to the rack. And for his time, he was big SF at 6'9 230 pounds. But other than the rings, Pierce has him trumped in all the other categories pretty much.

[L.Kizzle]

Worthy is one of the most overlooked from the past 30 years or so. He should be up there with Pippen and McHale. I'm thinking he can go over Wilkins now also. He had a very complete game.

[L.Kizzle]

From about 86-87 on he definitely wasn't a third option anymore.

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

Worthy is one of the most overlooked from the past 30 years or so. He should be up there with Pippen and McHale. I'm thinking he can go over Wilkins now also. He had a very complete game.

Wish there were more game footage of him on Youtube (like an actual archive of his best games, edited). Worthy's competitive fire was ridiculous. I remember watching a special during the '93 Laker-Phoenix series and every one of his teammates said Worthy had the most discipline and focus on the team (iirc, Magic also said Worthy is one of the 10 greatest postseason players ever. Laker bias naturally - but it still gives you an idea of how money dude was in BIG games).

Worthy was more than capable of being lead alpha for a franchise, if given the opportunity.

[gts]

As a Laker fan who watched Worthy this isn't really as close as some would like to say.. Worthy was a dominate force on the court and was more than just a third option, on many a night he was the team leader on both ends of the floor... In the playoffs he was insane

[Fire Colangelo]

I would take Pierce for longevity. Not to mention Pierce had huge moments in the playoffs as well. 41 points in game 7 to close out the Cavs in 2008 comes to mind.

[Smoke117]

Worthy. In a half court set he's frankly just a much better scorer. He is a great and under-appreciated post up player because he was on the Lakers and played with Kareem and Magic who were also good-great post up players. This guy would have averaged 25+ for years on good efficiency if he was actually fed in the post regularly his whole career like he should have been. Pierce has no skills close to as good as Worthy on the block.

[BIZARRO]

It's Worthy all day. But I feel like you would have had to see him play to know this. He was incredible.

[oarabbus]

Worthy is one of the most overlooked from the past 30 years or so. He should be up there with Pippen and McHale. I'm thinking he can go over Wilkins now also. He had a very complete game.


Sam Jones > Worthy

In terms of being overlooked, in terms of ability, and in terms of career

But yeah Worthy > Pierce

[Cold soul]

This is a close call Worthy but just barely.

[bizil]

As a Laker fan who watched Worthy this isn't really as close as some would like to say.. Worthy was a dominate force on the court and was more than just a third option, on many a night he was the team leader on both ends of the floor... In the playoffs he was insane

I agree. When I say third option it's simply because he had Kareem and Magic there. He was alpha dog quality no doubt about. But that doesn't change the fact he was the third option. On most other teams Worthy would have been gettin 25+ points a night.

Another difference between the two was Pierce was an SF-swingman type while Worthy was a SF-PF. And Pierce actually has the more complete scoring skillset than Worthy. For my money,Pierce has one of the top 10 scoring skillsets ever at the SF position. Pierce was also a better passer than Worthy and was among the elite rebounding SF's at his peak too. But Worthy was a freakish caliber athlete who was deadly in the post, slashing, transition, and was very good from midrange. It might actually come down to what u need, a swingman or a SF-PF.

[3ball]

Worthy. In a half court set he's frankly just a much better scorer.

This guy would have averaged 25+ for years on good efficiency if he was actually fed in the post regularly his whole career like he should have been. Pierce has no skills close to as good as Worthy on the block.


Worthy was the better stronger half-court scorer because he had to go through defenses that weren't guarding the three-pointer and didn't have defensive 3 seconds, so the paint looked like this as a standard:

http://gifsforum.com/images_new/gif/other/grand/61d58f40c5cf8604037d2faf4fa1c7f5.gif


Pierce had to deal with a little of that early in his career, but for the most part, he got to enjoy a better-spaced court, where his superior ball-handling really benefitted.

[bigt]

I'd take Pierce personally, but note that it's a homer pick and I've had the luxury of seeing a lot more of The Truth's game than I have Worthy. Not a knock on Worthy though, he definitely doesn't get the attention his game deserves

[Charlie Sheen]

Worthy one of my favorite players of all time, but I gotta give the nod to Pierce.

The longevity advantage is MASSIVE. Pierce is going to wind up with almost 10k more points than Worthy. Pierce's shooting makes him the easy choice in today's NBA.


I've always wondered what it does for PP's legacy if KG never got injured in 08-09. There's a really good chance PP has a second ring and 3 straight finals.

[JohnnySic]

Pierce

Worthy was a good player in a great situation. But he was not close to 'Nique or Bernard King, 2 players left of the "greatest 50" that he made it on.

Worthy was in the category of Adrian Dantley, Mark Aguirre, Alex English, etc (who imo were all better than him too, but he's in that category).

Worthy on a bad team would be just a footnote in history.

[Shep]

Pierce is the answer.

Big game.

The numbers are pretty close too, despite Worthy playing on an incredibly stacked Laker team.

His game 7 against Detroit is something Pierce was never capable of upstaging.
Great game, but it was 1 game. Worthy was never capable of matching Pierce's entire 2002 - putting up 26.1ppg, 6.9rpg, 3.2apg, 1.9spg, and 1.0bpg, on a third seeded team and then to make the conference finals averaging 24.6ppg, 8.6rpg, 4.1apg, 1.7spg, and 1.3bpg.

[Lebron23]

Give me Paul Piece. He was a solid first scoring option during his prime. And he had better all around numbers than Big Game James.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/tumblr_luzjb61GJI1qhna7uo1_400.jpg

http://boston.sportsthenandnow.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/paul-pierce.jpg

[Dr Seuss]

Worthy on a bad team would be just a footnote in history.

you can also say that about paul pierce during his shitty celtic's team era before the big 3.

[Uncle Drew]

Not to mention Pierce had huge moments in the playoffs as well. 41 points in game 7 to close out the Cavs in 2008 comes to mind.
So did Worthy. 36/16/10 in Game 7 of the '88 Finals, dropped 40 points (taking ''just'' 26 shots) on Rodman and Mahorn with Magic injured and Kareem literally walking on his last legs, as he retired after that game, in Game 4 of the '89 finals.

I'd take Pierce, but it's incredibly close.

[greatest-ever]

Pierce had the better career and is probably a slightly better player, but we never seen Worthy as a 1st option so who knows.

I have Pierce in the 38-42 range all time while Worthy may not even crack my top 50.

[IncarceratedBob]

As a Celtic fan ima take Worthy

[greatest-ever]

Worthy one of my favorite players of all time, but I gotta give the nod to Pierce.

The longevity advantage is MASSIVE. Pierce is going to wind up with almost 10k more points than Worthy. Pierce's shooting makes him the easy choice in today's NBA.


I've always wondered what it does for PP's legacy if KG never got injured in 08-09. There's a really good chance PP has a second ring and 3 straight finals.
Pierce's 2nd ring may have bumped him up a couple spots but he wouldn't be any better as a player.

[swagga]

apples and oranges. imo they are neck and neck, they both had a skill based game exceptionally suited for their eras.

right now i'd take pierce as the modern game is more shooting oriented. In the 80s I'd take worthy.

[MEB2kDeez]

Hmm, good one. I say Pierce but like others have said, it's close.

[Pushxx]

I'll take Pierce.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071019155930/uncyclopedia/images/7/7b/Dancing_banana.gif