Dime Magazine sat down with Tony Allen after a breakout 14 point, 8 rebound, 6 steal game last night to talk about a variety of things. One heavy topic: Paul Pierce
Dime: I wanted to ask you about your boy, Paul Pierce. In watching him for so long, what stood out about him or what did you learn from him?
TA: I learned that preparation is key to everything. Staying ready and just preparing for the challenge. Watching him before every season, I saw him getting a gang of shots up before every season, before every practice, just getting in his conditioning before practice. I saw him getting his weights in before practice. I saw him paying attention at shootaround when his opponent that he is about to face is coming up. His focus before (practice) and his intensity during practice. Just being competitive. I just instilled that from him and I always competed with him during practice. The way he practices is just the way he plays. He plays hard and he practices hard so I try to carry that over as much as I can in my regimen.Dime: What about Pierce’s attitude? He had a rep for a while. People thought of him as a selfish player. But as the years have gone on, that has kind of changed.
TA: He’s never down. He’s the most confident person in the world. I saw games where he went 3-for-17 and pretty much shot us out of the game. But he always had the confidence and the mentality to say to himself, “You know what? Those odd shots that I missed? I guarantee that I won’t miss them next game.” Then the next game he comes out and probably has 35. The way he deals with consistency and how he practices to be prepared, it’s almost like he has the right to be and has the confidence…He has the right to be selfish because he’s a winner and he definitely knows how to win. That reputation that he had, you have to know him in order to judge him. He’s definitely one of the most confident players that I’ve competed against or that I’ve known.
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