Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce helped the Boston Celtics to the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals during their time together. The Boston Celtics were led to the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals by Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, four years into their collaboration. The two were selected for their second consecutive All-Star team together a year later.
They helped Boston finish the season with a 44-38 record and a trip to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. However, the Celtics dealt Walker to the Dallas Mavericks with Tony Delk just before the 2003–04 season began in return for Jiri Welsch, Chris Mills, Raef LaFrentz, and a 2004 first-round pick.
The Comeback of Kentucky Wildcat
Later, in February 2005, the former Kentucky Wildcat—nicknamed Employee Number Eight—came back to the city where he had spent eight of his twelve NBA seasons, wearing number 88.
During his second stay in Boston, Walker averaged 16.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, which helped the team, led by first-year head coach Doc Rivers, make the playoffs.
After spending the 2007–08 season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the former went on to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy as a member of the Miami Heat the following season. He then continued to play for two more years before his career came to an end.
But Walker returns to TD Garden on a regular basis after his playing days are over. Additionally, he made an appearance in View From the Rafters with Paul Pierce while visiting the Auerbach Center, home of the Boston Celtics. Pierce said,
“It was a lot of people saying that we couldn’t win with that style of play because we shot a lot of threes,” “We shot 30-40 threes a game, and they was like, ‘You can’t win that way.’ Now look where we are.”
Paul and Antoine were ahead of the curve on firing from deep 🎯
Listen to them chop it up on VFTR ⤵️
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 24, 2024
They talked about how the tandem anchored teams ahead of their time, which was a key component of their journey to the Eastern Conference Finals, during a trip down memory lane.