A 12-year-old basketball player is making waves around social media for the similarity of his name to NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce. Yet, make no mistake: Pierce Paul can also ball.
Pierce Paul went viral over the weekend for his 61-point performance in a youth basketball game, which included shooting 15-20 from 3-point range — a performance that his (likely) namesake would approve of.
12 year old Pierce Paul dropped 61 PTS in a single game last weekend ?
61 PTS
15/20 3PM(via @AustinSelect_) pic.twitter.com/FBsLPLe2Q2
— Overtime (@overtime) November 7, 2023
There's currently no confirmation that Pierce Paul — who plays for Austin Select Basketball Club, which is the (self-proclaimed) premier select youth basketball program in Texas — was indeed named after Paul Pierce. But the similarity of their names (and the fact that they're both basketball players) seems too uncanny to be sheer coincidence. That's especially because Pierce Paul would have been born amid the height of Paul Pierce's stardom, during his 15-year tenure with the Boston Celtics.
As one would expect, basketball fans are having a field day with this story. One X user posted, "Truth, The" in response to the viral video, a hilarious flip-flop of Paul Pierce's iconic "The Truth" nickname.
Another X user posted, "kept reading this as Paul Pierce and was unbelievably confused." That is understandable, considering the thought of a 46-year-old Paul Pierce balling out against a youth basketball team is enough to make anyone do a double-take.
While we haven't heard any response from Paul Pierce quite yet, it seems likely that, considering his activity on X, we'll see something from him in the near future about Pierce Paul's scoring performance and claim to fame.
Then again, Paul Pierce's bio on X states, 'The one and only Truth." So perhaps the Celtics legend won't take too kindly to "Truth, The" stealing his spotlight. Fortunately, he still has a while before Paul will really start to take a national stage, if he continues to score like he's able to right now.
