Chris Forsberg shared this story on Doc's son Austin… where Austin, then a sophomore in high school, was playing Paul Pierce in a 1-on-1 game to 5. Pierce, half-assing it, went down 4-2.
His
size notwithstanding, Austin goes up 4-2 in the first-to-five matchup.
Pierce, who has built a Hall of Fame career with his plodding,
effective drives and crunch-time heroics, is suddenly serious.He
starts taking the youngster to the rack, and Austin — just a high
school sophomore at the time — is powerless to do anything about it.
Pierce prevails, 5-4. When asked to recount some of his career
highlights to date, Austin doesn't offer this one up. But his dad does.
"Austin was pissed that he lost, mad that he couldn't stop Paul," Doc says.
But here's the best part… when Doc turns from Dad to coach:
Pierce told Doc: "He's no fun to guard."
Doc told Austin: "He never said anything about your defense."
Eat it, kid. Yeah, so what you're not even old enough to drive and you're going up against a Hall of Famer who often can't be stopped by multiple NBA defenders… you want to make it? Work on your D.
Austin is featured in the latest edition of ESPN's Rise magazine. Check it out and you'll see why this kid could, in about 4 or 5 years, be the guy NBA teams are tanking for.
Photo: Kelly Kline for ESPNRISE.com
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