Paul Pierce: 'I'm The Best Basketball Player In The World'

Finals MVP Paul Pierce, who recently spent three days at a ball camp in Madrid, is making, ahem, news about what he said to a Spanish reporter.

Q: Is Kobe really the best player in the world?

Pierce:"I don't think Kobe is the best player. I'm the best player. There's a line that separates having confidence and being conceited. I don't cross that line but I have a lot of confidence in myself."

My take: Look, I know what happens next. I've seen it time and time again. You get thousands on thousands of Lakers and Kobe Stans who will now come out of the woodwork and say all kinds of slights about Paul Pierce because he thinks he's better than Kobe and to these idiots, 'them is fightin' words'. I get all that. My question, and I hope they will ask themselves this before they grab their pitchforks and burning candles and shotguns and go on a lynching spree like the extremists they are, is what did you expect him to say? I mean really. His team just Fleece Johnson'd ("somebody's giving up some booty") your squad on the biggest stage and individually earned recognition as the best player of the series via his NBA Finals MVP trophy. He outplayed Kobe on both ends of the floor. He earned the MVP Trophy not even at full strength (clearly he didn't tear his ACL but he wasn't 100% I don't care what the stanleys say). He stared down LeBron James in a closeout game and lived to tell about it. And lastly overall, he was the best player of the entire 2008 NBA Playoffs proving all the B.S his critics pointed to about him not being clutch wrong. If he doesn't deserve to be confident I don't know who does right now, at this time. You play poorly and you eat a plate of crow. You play great and you reap the benefits of raising your stature. That's just one plus one equals two. Really, you learn those kinds of basics in elementary school recess periods. Besides, he was asked a direct question and he gave an honest answer. Not a packaged, political company line. You expect him to say somebody else is better than him? Not likely. I applaud, Paul. Only, you better come out how you left off in June man. You want to be the best, you better be able to put that title on the line every night, city after city. I think you got it in you personally, but the world doesn't. Prove me right and them wrong.