Celtics:

Paul Pierce officially eliminated LeBron James and Kevin Durant to protect this player..

Boston Celtics icon Paul Pierce believes Jayson Tatum, not LeBron James, Kevin Durant, or Stephen Curry, is the best American NBA player.

Recently, Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce raised eyebrows across the NBA when he proclaimed his belief that current Celtics star Jayson Tatum is the best American player in the NBA, having already passed up LeBron James and Kevin Durant, and with the only challenger, in Pierce’s eyes, to Tatum’s throne being Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.

“Right now, the best American in the league is Jayson Tatum… I’m just looking around, and I think he’s passed Kevin Durant, I think he’s passed LeBron [James],” said Pierce, via SHOWTIME Basketball. “The only argument is Steph [Curry].”

Now, Paul Pierce is doubling down on that take in the form of a reply to a user on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, who had questioned Pierce’s rankings, noting Tatum’s status as a member of the First Team All NBA a season ago.

I didn’t see either one of them on 1st team All NBA last year 🤷🏾‍♂️ https://t.co/ZGtpNGq0qn

— Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34) November 21, 2023

Of course, Warriors fans might take issue with Pierce not having Jayson Tatum definitively past Stephen Curry in the rankings due to the head-to-head matchup we saw between the two in the 2022 NBA Finals, in which Curry thoroughly outplayed the Celtics star.

While LeBron James and Kevin Durant may not be quite the forces of nature they were in their heyday, both are still producing at an elite level that is at the very least comparable to what Tatum does for Boston on a nightly basis.

Still, it shouldn’t be that surprising that Pierce, who spent the vast majority of his career playing for the Celtics, would side with Tatum on this argument.